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ARCHITECTURAL 
RENDERING    IN   WASH 


ARCHITECTURAL 
RENDERING  IN  WASH 


BY 

H.  VAN  BUREN  MAGONIGLE,  F.A.I.A. 

ARCHITECT 
GOLD    MEDALLIST    OF    THE    ARCHITECTURAL    LEAGUE    OF    NEW   YORK,    ROTCH    TRAV- 
ELLING SCHOLAR,    FELLOW  OF  THE    AMERICAN   INSTITUTE   OF   ARCHITECTS, 
PAST-PRESIDENT  OF   THE    ASSOCIATION    OF   THE    ALUMNI    OF   THE 
AMERICAN  ACADEMY  IN  ROME,  PAST-PRESIDENT  OF  THE 
ARCHITECTURAL    LEAGUE    OF    NEW    YORK. 


WITH  A  PREFACE 
BY 

THOMAS  R.  KIMBALL,  F.A.I.A. 

PAST-PRESIDENT   OF   THE  AMERICAN    INSTITUTE  OF  ARCHITECTS 


4  G  S  4  9 

NEW  YORK 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 

1922 


Copyright,  1921,  by 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


E 

T  Q 

V 


PREFACE 

Opinion  has  proclaimed  that  a  preface  should  introduce  the 
author  to  his  audience.    I  should  add — and  prepare  that  audi- 
ence for  the  work  itself.    "Architectural  Rendering  in  Wash" 
presents  its  author  in  the  diverse  capacities  of  architect,  drafts- 
>'    man,  painter,  and  writer.    Incidentally,  it  suggests  other  qual- 
c^    ifications  of  this  many-sided  personality.    It  presents  its  subject 
from  the  view-points  of  architect  and  draftsman,  and  harmonizes 
them.    It  solves  a  host  of  difficult  problems  and  answers  many 
trying  questions.    It  is  the  architectural  draftsman  who  will  be 
the  greatest  beneficiary,  who  will  find  his  work  has  been  made 
easier  and  his  output  improved  by  the  acquisition  of  this  new 
and  engaging  text  book  and  authority.    The  architect  will  bene- 
^     fit  in  that  his  work  will  be  better  presented,  and  possibly  he  may, 
'^    himself,  be  better  able  to  appreciate  what  architectural  pre- 
/^      sentation  means.     Posterity  will  come  in  for  a  great  acquisi- 
;      tion  in  that  through  this  work  there  will  be  recorded  what  other- 
oJ      wise  might  one  day  join  the  "lost  arts,"  for  architectural  render- 
\.f^      '^^S  is  to-day  at  its  zenith,  indisputably  an  art  in  itself,  and  a 
J)      great  one.    I  foresee  for  this  book  a  widespread  and  lasting  in- 
fluence for  the  betterment  of  artistic  appreciation,  architectural 
draftsmanship,  and  last,  but  not  least,  architecture  itself;  and 
I  commend  it  to  all  whose  interests  embrace  these  subjects,  and 
to  that  great  group  of  discerning  men  and  women,  the  public — 
on  whom  by  the  very  nature  of  things — the  future  of  all  art  must 

depend.  ^ 

Thos.  R.  Kimball,  F.  A.  I.  A. 

Omaha,  Nebraska. 

vii 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTBB  SAGE 

I.    The  Preliminary  Steps 3 

11.     Rendering 31 

III.  Quarter-,  Half-,  or  Three-Quarter-Color    .     .  83 

IV.  Rendering  Sections 93 

V.     Rendering  Detail  Drawing 94 

VI.     Rendering  Plans 100 

VII.     The  Properties  OF  Pigments 116 

VIII.     Free  Color  and  Free  Sketching 133 

Index 145 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


The  Library  of  Columbia  University,  Drawn  by  Jules  Guerin 

Frontispiece 


1  Rendered  by  Otto  R.  Eggers 

2  Rendered  by  the  Author 

—  Diagram  of  Building  Assumed  to  be  Rendered,  Drawn 

by  Oliver  Reagan 

3  Rendered  by  Birch  Burdette  Long 

4  "  "    the  Author 

—  Diagram  of  Typical  Cornice  Shadow,  Drawn  by  Oliver 

Reagan 

5  Rendered  by  the  Author 

6  "  "    the  Author 

7  "  "    Bellows,  Ripley,  Clapp  and  Faelten  . 

8  "  *'    the  Author 

9  "  "    the  Author 

10  "  "    Paul  Philippe  Cret 

11  "  *'    the  Author 

12  *'  "    G.   Redon 

13  "  *'    Paul  Philippe  Cret 

14  "  "    G.  Ancelet 

15  "  *'    Leon  Chifflot 

16  "  "    Frank  Hazell 

17  *'  "    Hubert  G.   Ripley      .      .     ,. 

18  "  *'    Jules  Guerin 

19  "  "    Hubert  G.  Ripley 

20  "  "    the  Author 

21  "  *'    Otto  R.  Eggers 

22  "  "    Ernest  Peixotto 


PAGB 

12 

22 


34 

42 

66 

68 
70 

80 
82 

84 
88 

94 
96 

98 
100 
104 
1 12 
120 
130 

134 
136 

138 
140 
142 


FOREWORD 

Genius  has  been  defined  as  the  capacity  for  taking  infinite 
pains.  It  takes  infinite  pains  to  make  a  beautiful  rendered  draw- 
ing. The  conclusion  is  irresistible — one  has  but  to  make  a 
beautiful  rendered  drawing  and  behold!  A  genius.  Or,  one  need 
but  take  infinite  pains  and  the  genius  and  the  drawing  are  pro- 
duced by  one  and  the  same  process.  This  modest  manual  is  a 
guide  to  the  process.  With  the  information  given  here,  the 
addition  of  some  brains,  a  little  temperament,  a  vast  deal  of  pa- 
tience (or  ardor  under  restraint),  a  modicum  of  vision  and  as 
much  imagination  as  obtainable  from  the  ancestral  tree,  any 
one  may  arrive. 

This  book  is  devoted  principally  to  the  rendering  of  geomet- 
rical drawings — elevations,  sections,  plans  and  details — what 
may  be  called  formal  or  academic  rendering.  It  is  not  a  gen- 
eral treatise  upon  painting  in  water  color,  although  there  is 
an  indefinite  middle  ground  between  the  formal  and  the  free 
into  which  we  must  make  an  occasional  excursion  and  a  con- 
siderable body  of  information  upon  rendering  in  full  color  and 
sketching  will  be  found  here.  But  it  is  with  the  aristocrat  of 
architectural  rendering,  formal  rendering  in  India  Ink,  we 
shall  deal  principally,  for  several  reasons,  chief  among  them 
being  that  academic  rendering  may  be  reduced  to  a  method  and 
a  formula.  A  definite  recipe  may  be  given,  a  program  laid 
out.  Without  a  definite  method,  a  carefully  thought-out  series 
of  steps  to  take,  an  academic  rendering  in  India  Ink  is  fore- 


xiv  FOREWORD 

doomed  to  failure.  But  in  free  work  in  water  color,  rapid  sketch- 
ing on  white  or  toned  paper  and  architectural  rendering  in  full 
color,  while  there  must,  of  course,  be  method,  much  depends 
upon  the  temperament  of  the  individual,  the  personal  tricks  of 
handling  which  stamp  his  work  with  his  style,  the  way  of  see- 
ing and  the  method  of  attack;  and  since  every  one  has  different 
systems  it  is  an  impossibility  to  crystallize  them  into  formula 
— as  well  as  being  a  crime.  The  most  that  can  be  done  for  free 
work  is  to  give  a  few  hints  and  let  it  go  at  that.  For  art  may 
be  learned,  or  apprehended,  but  it  cannot  be  taught.  The  most 
one  can  do  or  should  do  is  to  say,  ''I  do  it  in  this  way.  But  you 
must  do  it  your  way — when  you  know  how!"  Before  a  man's 
skill  and  knowledge  have  developed  he  must  follow  some  man 
or  some  method  or  lose  himself  in  a  maze  of  mistakes.  Later  he 
may  blaze  a  trail  for  himself. 

It  is  a  great  temptation  to  a  novice  to  use  all  the  colors  there 
are,  in  any  sort  of  rendering  and  on  one  drawing.  He  likes 
to  use  color  and  forgets  that  this  is  not  the  last  drawing  he  will 
make  in  the  course  of  his  life  and  that  it  is  hardly  fair  to  the 
future  ones  to  use  up  the  rainbow  so  early  in  the  day.  It  is  the 
same  as  in  design — he  forgets  that  if  his  luck  holds  he  will  de- 
sign many  a  building  and  that  it  isn't  necessary,  it  is  even  quite 
distinctly  undesirable,  to  put  everything  he  knows  about  into 
one  design.  A  decent  reticence  is  to  be  observed  in  this  as  in 
other  things  in  life — one  doesn't  go  about  telling  all  one  knows, 
all  at  once. 

Every  student  seems  to  want  to  render  geometrical  draw- 
ings in  full  color  whether  the  work  has  to  be  done  at  night  or 
not,  or  whether  the  author  of  the  given  outrage  knows  how  to 
handle  even  one  color,  let  alone  the  full  rainbow.     This  is  a 


FOREWORD  XV 

great  pity.  For  the  most  distinguished  architectural  drawing  is 
always  the  monotone  drawing.  The  method  of  representing  a 
building  in  elevation  rather  than  in  perspective  is  a  convention, 
and  the  more  closely  one  adheres  to  a  convention  in  its  rendition 
the  more  harmonious  the  relation  between  the  fact  and  its  pres- 
entation. The  moment  the  third  dimension  appears  in  a  draw- 
ing, as  it  does  in  a  perspective,  the  convention  need  no  longer 
be  respected  and  the  aim  changes  and  becomes  an  approxima- 
tion of  reality.  The  truth  is  that  the  average  student-rendering 
in  full  color  is  intended  to  make  a  noise  which  will  cover  up  some 
shortcoming  or  kill  its  neighbors.  If  a  value  is  wrong,  it  may  be 
blamed  upon  night  work  in  artificial  light.  But  in  a  mono- 
tone drawing  there  is  not  a  chance.  If  a  value  is  wrong  it  is 
wrong.  I  therefore  urge  students  in  or  out  of  school  to  practise 
rendering  in  India  Ink  before  going  on  to  the  use  of  color. 
It  is  one  of  the  few  forms  of  self-denial  with  a  tangible  reward. 
Another  reason  for  treating  principally  of  formal  rendering 
is  that  the  average  American  student  of  Architecture  is  al- 
together too  fond  of  short  cuts,  is  apt  to  be  superficial  and  is  im- 
patient of  the  solid  things  that  lie  at  the  foundation  of  his  art. 
Among  these  solid  things  is  a  kind  and  method  of  study  and 
presentation  of  architectural  design  which  really  trains  his  eye. 
The  French,  trained  for  generations  in  the  effort  to  teach  art, 
know  this;  and  the  Grand  Prix  men  in  their  first  year  at  the 
Villa  Medici — do  what?  Make  careful  studies  of  the  orders 
in  India  Ink  as  a  preparation  for  the  work  of  the  years  to  follow 
and  as  a  sort  of  purge  and  corrective  of  the  kind  of  work  they 
have  been  doing  at  the  Ecole  des  Beaux  Arts.  Large  French- 
men with  beards  do  this,  quite  unashamed.  And  some  of  those 
who,  at  the  School,  indulged  in  the  most  untamed  vagaries  of 


xvi  FOREWORD 

design,  pace  soberly  and  with  apparent  willingness  in  the  re- 
straining bonds  of  academic  rendering. 

The  rigid  discipline  it  enforces  in  the  judgment  of  values 
and  tones,  the  training  the  eye  gets  in  discerning  the  difference, 
let  us  say,  between  two  whites  in  which  there  is  scarcely  a 
breath  of  difference  near  by  but  which  at  a  distance  count  with 
a  totally  different  force,  the  exercise  the  hand  gets  in  perfect- 
ing a  technique,  are  all  of  inestimable  value.  Why  so  much 
emphasis  upon  draughtsmanship,  upon  presentation?  Because 
by  means  of  drawings  the  eye  is  trained  to  appreciate  values  in 
the  distribution  of  light  and  shade  and  color — and  it  is  with 
light  and  shade  and  color  the  architect  deals  all  his  life.  And 
how  is  he  to  effect  the  distribution  of  his  light  and  shade  and 
color  without  making  drawings  which  accurately  express  it, 
first?  How  can  he  make  drawings  which  accurately  express  it 
without  learning  how  to  do  so  with  his  own  hands?  How  is 
he  to  train  his  own  eye  by  the  use  of  some  one's  else  hands? 

Formal  rendering  may  be  considered  as  the  foundation  of 
all  rendering  and  its  principles  may  be  applied  with  the  proper 
intelligent  modifications  to  freer  work.  The  danger  to  avoid  in 
doing  too  much  formal  rendering  is  the  acquisition  of  a  habit 
of  too  great  precision.  Therefore  one  must  keep  loosened  up 
by  plenty  of  rapid  sketching.  Let  no  lazy  man  think  he  can 
succeed  in  this  any  more  than  he  can  in  anything  else.  Formal 
rendering  is  not  for  the  lazy  man. 

After  due  consideration  I  have  determined  to  assume  that 
the  reader  is  a  beginner  and  knows  little  or  nothing  about  ren- 
dering but  wants  to  find  out.  This  will  give  the  novice  what 
he  needs — and  the  more  experienced  may  find  useful  and  help- 
ful suggestions. 


ARCHITECTURAL 
RENDERING   IN   WASH 


Will  all  you  who  have  helped  me  make  this  book, 
by  loan  of  drawings,  by  advice  and  criticism,  by 
reading  proof,  and  above  all  by  friendly  encourage- 
ment, accept  my  warmest  thanks? 

H.  Van  Buren  Magoniglb. 
1921. 


ARCHITECTURAL 
RENDERING  IN  WASH 

I 

THE  PRELIMINARY  STEPS 

A  successful  rendering  begins  'way  back  with  the  bare  draw- 
ing board.  The  careful  man  will  choose  the  best  board  he  can 
find.  He  will  test  the  edges  to  see  if  they  be  true,  free  from 
bulges  and  hollows  which  would  throw  the  T-square  up  or  down, 
for  accuracy  is  essential  to  complete  success;  friezes,  or  the 
narrow  whites  of  cornices  or  flights  of  steps  must  be  the  same 
width  throughout.  He  will  clean  the  board  carefully,  remove 
old  edges  of  former  mounts  and  old  paste.  Then  he  will  sand- 
paper it  with  fine  sandpaper  and  if  there  are  any  humps  in 
the  surface,  hammer  them  down  carefully.  Bad  hollows  and 
old  thumb-tack  holes  may  be  filled  up  with  a  mixture  of  very 
thin  glue  (or  very  thick  glue-water)  and  whiting,  sandpapered 
smooth  after  drying. 

Now  why  on  earth  these  precautions?  Because  lumps  and 
hummocks  under  the  paper  to  be  mounted  on  this  board  cause 
dirt  and  graphite  to  collect  on  the  paper  over  the  lumps,  and 
such  collections  are  very  difficult  to  erase.  Also,  with  a  singu- 
lar perversity,  they  always  come  in  the  worst  possible  places 
on  the  drawing.  Also,  old  paste  when  dampened  again  by  the 
wet  paper  sticks  to  the  underside  of  it  and  the  only  way  to  part 


4      ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

them  is  to  whittle  a  chip  out  of  the  board  and  pare  it  ofif  of  the 
paper. 

Paper.  All  this  labor  may  be  delegated  by  those  main- 
taining trusty  slaves,  but  the  work  of  the  most  trustworthy  may 
be  inspected  and  reviewed  to  advantage.  The  next  step,  how- 
ever, is  for  the  operator  himself.  It  concerns  the  selection  and 
mounting  of  the  paper.  Of  all  the  papers  in  the  world  the  best 
for  rendering  is  Whatman's  cold-pressed.  Hot-pressed  What- 
man is  merely  the  same  paper  run  through  hot  rollers  which 
crush  down  the  surface  and  make  it  very  smooth.  When  wet 
up  the  grain  rises  again  somewhat.  But,  while  admirable  for 
certain  classes  of  line  drawings,  it  is  not,  in  my  opinion,  a  good 
surface  to  render  upon  in  wash.  It  won't  stand  sponging  very 
well,  the  smooth  surface  is  easily  abraded  by  the  rubber  and 
dirt  collects  upon  it  like  magic.  Whatman's  cold-pressed  comes 
in  various  sized  sheets,  the  largest,  called  "Antiquarian,"  being 
31  X52  inches.  This  size  sheet  is  just  right  for  weight  which 
can  be  obtained  in  the  smaller  sizes  when  ordered  "Extra 
Heavy."  The  smaller  sheets  are  called  "Double  Elephant," 
27  X  40  inches,  and  Imperial  22  x  30  inches.  Thin,  light-weight 
paper  should  be  avoided  even  for  very  small  drawings.  It  lacks 
quality  of  surface  somehow,  and  will  buckle  and  bulge  when  wet 
up  with  a  wash  because  it  has  no  body.  For  very  large  draw- 
ings it  is  sometimes  necessary  to  use  roll  papers.  Most  of  them 
are  to  be  avoided.  Whatman  makes  a  good  roll  paper  which 
lacks  the  quality  of  the  hand-made  sheet  paper  but  has  a  fairly 
good  surface.  Eggshell  paper  was  the  best  roll  paper;  it  had 
texture,  would  stand  hard  usage  and  come  up  smiling  to  take 
a  wash  beautifully.  Steinbach  is  not  fit  to  use.  It  gets  brittle 
with  age  and  splits  if  stretched  very  tight — but  its  great  defect 


THE  PRELIMINARY  STEPS  5 

is  a  deceptive  air  of  receptiveness  to  a  wash.  It  looks  as  though 
it  would  be  great — but  it  is  so  non-absorbent  that  the  washes 
won't  dry  and  you  get  run-backs  and  fans.  This  is  true  of  most 
roll  papers — the  surface  is  too  hard.  The  grain  of  the  paper 
greatly  affects  the  quality  and  liveliness  of  the  wash.  The  identi- 
cal mixture  laid  in  the  identical  manner  on  different  kinds  of 
paper  looks  entirely  different  when  dry. 

Joining  Sheets.  It  is  worth  making  a  great  many  sacri- 
fices to  use  Whatman's — changing  the  scale  of  the  drawing  if 
necessary  and  possible,  to  get  it  on  a  single  large  sheet.  When 
the  drawing  has  to  be  larger  than  a  single  Antiquarian  sheet  I 
would  rather  paste  two  or  more  together  than  use  any  roll  paper 
now  obtainable.  This  joining  should  be  done  by  an  expert,  but 
when  an  expert  is  not  at  hand  one  may  make  shift  for  one's  self. 
The  two  edges  to  be  joined  should  have  the  rough  deckle  edge 
trimmed  off  square  and  then  beveled  down  to  a  feather  edge 
with  fine  emery  paper,  the  edges  retrimmed  and  then  pasted 
together  very  carefully  with  Higgins's  Drawing  Board  Paste, 
as  it  comes  from  the  jar,  spread  on  with  a  knife  blade  and  the 
joint  thumbtacked  down  at  the  extreme  ends  until  dry,  when 
any  paste  that  has  squeezed  out  of  the  joint  must  be  carefully 
sponged  off  with  a  damp,  not  a  wet,  sponge.  The  best  thing 
now  is  to  paste  it  solid  (or  "float"  it,  as  some  say)  on  a  mount 
made  up  of  three  or  more  thicknesses  of  cardboard  glued  or 
pasted  together.  To  such  a  mount,  which  is  in  itself  larger 
than  most  drawing  boards,  lighter  and  more  wieldly,  may  be 
clamped  a  straight  edge  on  which  to  work  the  T-square — and 
for  a  big  drawing  the  straight  edge  may  be  shifted  around  for 
greater  convenience.  It  is  perhaps  unnecessary  to  say  that  the 
joint  (or  joints)  in  the  paper  will  be  arranged  to  come  where 


6      ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

it  will  be  least  conspicuous  in  the  drawing,  that  it  will  be  par- 
allel to  the  edge  of  the  sheet,  the  mount  and  the  horizontals  or 
verticals  of  the  drawing,  and  that  if  the  joint  is  horizontal,  the 
top  half  of  the  sheet  will  lap  over  the  bottom  half — the  reason, 
of  course,  being  that  since  most  washes  are  run  from  the  top 
of  the  drawing  down,  the  wash  slips  over  the  edge  of  the  joint. 
If  it  were  the  other  way,  the  color  would  gather  in  a  streak  and 
perhaps  cause  a  run-back.  There  will  inevitably  be  a  slight 
ridge  along  the  lap  and  this  will  get  very  black  and  dirty  unless 
great  care  is  used  as  indicated  later. 

Cloth-backed  Papers.  Some  prefer  to  work  entirely  on 
paper  mounted  solid.  And  in  this  connection  there  is  a  warn- 
ing to  sound:  Be  careful  that  the  paste  is  not  worked  up  into 
the  paper.  If  it  is,  stop  right  there.  The  drawing  will  be  a 
botch.  Also,  cloth-backed  papers  are  dangerous  to  use  because 
they  are  made  by  the  yard  by  running  them  through  pressure 
rollers  which  make  a  fine  job  of  the  pasting,  but  squeeze  the  paste 
right  through.  I  prefer  to  mount  the  paper  by  the  edges  on  a 
drawing  board,  because  then  I  know  there  is  no  paste  in  the  pa- 
per and  because  one  is  left  freer  in  the  matter  of  mounting  the 
drawing  afterward — for  one  may  ink  in  a  cutting  line  and  run 
the  washes  out  over  it  regardless,  trim  the  drawing  to  the  line, 
mount  it  solid  on  a  white  mount  which  will  give,  when  the  outer 
paper  border  is  pasted  on,  a  white  band  of  any  desired  width 
next  to  the  drawing — which  is  very  valuable  to  have — and  which 
white  band  may  be  modified  in  tone  by  drawing  lines  or  wash- 
ing-in  bands  upon  it. 

I  advocate  mounting  joined  sheets  solid  to  work  upon,  be- 
cause the  tensions  in  a  joined  sheet  are  so  queer  that  it  is  very 
hard  to  mount  by  the  edges  only  on  a  board  (if  you  can  get  a 


THE  PRELIMINARY  STEPS  7 

board  big  enough)  and  then,  when  the  drawing  is  cut  off,  the 
shrinkages  of  the  two  or  more  pieces  differ  so  owing  to  the  dis- 
parity in  the  number  of  washes  passed  over  the  various  parts,  that 
it  is  harder  to  mount  than  before  the  drawing  is  made  on  it 
and  to  which  original  difficulty  is  added  the  fact  that  a  valuable 
drawing  is  now  on  one  side  of  it. 

Selecting  the  Paper.  Let  us  assume  that  we  can  use  a 
single  sheet  of  Whatman's  of  any  size  you  like  under  31  x  52" 
but  Extra  Heavy.  The  first  thing  to  do  is  to  select  the  sheet 
carefully  from  among  a  goodly  number.  Every  sheet  of  What- 
man is  dated  in  the  marginal  water  mark.  Hold  it  to  the  light 
The  older  the  paper  the  better  dried  out  and  seasoned  it  is. 
Some  thoughtful  persons  lay  down  a  few  sheets  a  year  as  our 
forebears  laid  down  wine  to  ripen  and  mellow.  And  althoug^j 
Whatman's  is  a  singularly  agreeable  white  and  holds  its  color 
wonderfully  (which,  by  the  way,  eggshell  did  not),  it  does  take 
on  a  slightly  creamier  tone  with  age.  Hold  it  to  the  light  again 
and  examine  it  carefully  for  defects.  Sometimes  in  the  process 
of  manufacture,  a  drop  of  water  falls  on  the  soft  pulp  and  makes 
a  thin  spot  which  resembles  a  little  crater;  sometimes  the  film  of 
pulp  is  thinner  in  places;  and  nearly  always  there  are  specially 
thick  places  and  little  lumps  and  sometimes  dark  or  black  spots. 
These  are  defects  inseparable  from  a  hand-made  paper.  Fre- 
quently lumps  which  seem  to  be  a  part  of  the  fabric  may  be 
picked  off  with  a  careful  finger  nail.  When  the  thin  spots  are 
pretty  bad  or  numerous,  return  the  paper  to  the  dealer.  One  can 
nearly  always  find  a  perfect  or  practically  perfect  sheet  or  avoid 
trouble  by  choosing  one  in  which  the  defect  will  occur  in  a  part 
of  the  drawing  where  it  will  do  the  least  harm. 

Mounting.     Having  selected  a  good  sheet  we  mount  it  on 


8      ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

the  board.  The  best  way  to  mount  a  sheet  of  paper  is  always 
one's  own  way.  Nevertheless  the  following  has  its  advantages 
and  has,  besides,  the  cachet  of  Professor  William  R.  Ware's 
recommendation;  I  caught  it  from  a  pupil  of  his  when  very 
young  and  am  incurably  addicted  to  it.  Lay  the  paper  on  the 
board  with  the  water  mark  right  side  up  and  turn  up  the  edges 
carefully  all  around  making  a  soft  crease  so  that  they  will  stand 
up  and  form  a  shallow  pan  (one-half  or  three-quarters  of  an 
inch  wide;  it  is  not  necessary  to  trim  off  the  deckle  edges).  At 
this  point  Professor  Ware  would  have  us  turn  the  sheet  over 
and  wet  it  on  the  other  side,  the  side  next  to  the  drawing  board 
when  mounted,  the  theory  being  not  to  sponge  the  working  face 
more  than  can  be  helped.  (But  Whatman  likes  to  be  sponged 
and  prospers  under  it  if  it  isn't  actually  scrubbed  while  wet. 
Another  part  of  the  theory  was  that  in  this  way  the  edges  did 
not  get  wet  and  dilute  the  paste  or  soften  up  so  that  when  you 
rubbed  them  down  to  make  the  paste  stick  they  would  tear. 
My  experience  is,  first,  that  the  water  on  the  back  leaks  out 
under  the  edges  when  they  are  turned  down  again  and  causes 
just  these  troubles;  second,  that  the  wet  surface  clings  to  the 
board  and  makes  it  harder  to  stretch;  and  third,  that  the  paper 
wets  the  board,  sometimes  causing  the  grain  of  the  wood  to  rise 
and  frequently  discoloring  the  paper.)  I  therefore  diverge  at 
this  point  and  wet  the  paper  on  the  working  face,  but  in  the 
Ware  manner,  viz.,  with  a  clean  sponge  full  of  clean  water  make 
the  British  Union  Jack — or  those  of  anti-British  predilections 
may  run  the  sponge  from  corner  to  corner  and  on  the  two  main 
axes  of  the  sheet;  the  result  will  be  the  same.  Do  it  slowly  and 
pass  the  sponge  over  the  wet  bands  several  times.  Then  let 
the  water  soak  in  for  a  minute  or  two  and  sponge  the  whole  sheet 


THE  PRELIMINARY  STEPS  9 

all  over,  Union  Jack  and  all.  The  theory  is  that  from  corner 
to  corner  and  from  side  to  side  there  will  be  a  strip  of  paper 
about  twice  as  wet  as  the  rest,  which  therefore  dries  out  last  and 
in  its  final  shrinking  helps  to  strain  the  sheet  to  the  corners  and 
outer  edges.  Anyway  it  seems  to  work  perfectly.  The  sheet 
being  wet  all  over,  squeeze  spongefuls  of  water  on  it  so  as  to 
cover  it  with  a  thin  film  of  water.  The  sheet  will  buckle  and 
form  puddles.  Keep  the  puddles  moving  with  the  sponge 
and  keep  the  outer  turned-up  edges  dry.  When  the  paper  is 
thoroughly  soaked  and  limp,  sop  up  the  surplus  water  with  the 
squeezed-out  sponge  until  no  more  actual  puddles  form.  Have 
a  towel  handy  and  keep  your  hands  clean.  While  the  paper  is 
soaking,  if  you  forgot  it  before,  ^et  out  the  Higgins's  Drawing 
Board  Paste.  Use  it  practically  as  it  comes  in  the  jar.  Dampen 
your  paste  brush  and  rub  it  around  in  the  jar. 

Adjust  the  paper  square  with  the  edges  of  the  board,  and 
pin  the  center  of  one  long  edge  to  the  board  with  two  thumb- 
tacks a  couple  of  inches  apart.  Put  paste  along  the  opposite 
turned-up  edge  for  eight  inches  or  a  foot.  Take  hold  of  it, 
lift  the  paper  slightly  and  pull  gently  but  strongly,  put  the 
gummed  edge  down  on  the  board,  and  hold  it  firmly  w4th  one 
hand  while  you  put  in  a  couple  of  thumbtacks  to  hold  it.  Seize 
a  piece  of  clean  paper,  put  it  over  the  gummed  edge  and  with 
some  smooth  object  like  a  knife  handle,  rub  gently  at  first  and 
then  more  strongly.  As  soon  as  the  paper  adheres  enough,  take 
out  the  thumbtacks  on  this  side  and  rub  down  where  they  were. 
Turn  the  board  around,  take  out  the  two  thumbtacks  from  that 
edge,  pull  gently  but  strongly  again,  and  paste  it  just  as  you  did 
the  other,  including  use  of  thumbtacks.  Do  the  same  at  the  cen- 
ter of  the  two  ends.    Work  quickly.    Watch  the  paper,    Water 


10    ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

will,  if  you  have  wet  it  properly,  gather  in  the  hollows.  Sop 
it  up  with  the  sponge.  Go  back  to  the  sides  and  paste  down 
enough  of  each  edge  at  each  side  of  the  center  to  leave  four 
to  six  inches  unpasted  at  the  corners.  Do  the  same  on  the  ends, 
always  pulling  the  paper  gently  but  strongly  before  laying  the 
edge  down  and  rubbing  it  till  it  adheres. 

Some  false  prophets  will  tell  you  the  paper  should  merely 
be  laid  down  and  never  pulled  and  that  the  water  shrinkage  is 
enough.  Don't  listen  to  them.  They  don't  know  what  they  are 
talking  about.  Try  it  some  time.  Make  a  careful  drawing 
on  a  big  sheet,  float  the  first  big  wash  and  give  me  the  news.  It 
will  buckle  and  form  puddles.  Even  a  damp  day  will  make  it 
buckle. 

After  this  disgression  we  will  paste  down  the  corners,  putting 
the  paste  on  both  corner  edges  and  pulling  as  the  appearance 
of  the  paper  indicates,  straight  to  the  corner  or  more  on  one 
or  the  other  side  as  required  to  take  out  fullness. 

If  properly  done,  the  sheet  should  now  be  fairly  flat  all  over 
without  puckers  anywhere  along  the  edges,  and  should  show 
no  dirty  finger  prints  nor  be  bedaubed  with  paste.  If  paste  has 
gotten  on  sponge  it  off  gently  with  a  damp,  not  wet,  sponge. 
The  sheet  may  still  be  wet  enough  for  faint  puddles  to  collect. 
If  not  removed  they  will  dry  out  leaving  yellowish  or  shiny 
rings.  Sop  them  up  with  a  sponge,  not  blotting  paper  as  the 
thoughtless  operator  does.  Blotting  paper  is  apt  to  deposit 
a  fuzz  on  the  paper  and  the  pressure  required  often  makes 
creases  in  the  damp  and  buckled  paper  of  which  just  enough 
remain  to  spoil  a  sky  or  background  wash  later.  Either  let  it 
dry  naturally  (lying  down  flat  so  that  the  moisture  won't  run  to 
one  side),  or  set  an  electric  fan  going  at  low  speed,  far  enough 


THE  PRELIMINARY  STEPS  ii 

away  so  that  the  cone  of  moving  air  will  play  over  the  whole  sur- 
face. Don't  point  the  fan  directly  down  at  it;  let  it  blow  over 
it.  Inspect  it  every  once  in  a  while  till  it  is  dry.  Some  parts 
of  the  paper  may  have  quite  dried  up  before  the  rest.  Dampen 
them  till  they  are  like  the  rest  of  the  sheet.  If  puckers  show 
near  the  edge  dampen  them  thoroughly  and  if  not  too  bad  they 
will  shrink  out. 

Again  it  may  be  asked,  Why  such  care?  And  why  not  let  a 
mere  worm  like  the  office  boy  do  it?  Sometimes  he  must  but 
whenever  there  is  time,  do  it  yourself.  I  count  my  own  time 
worth  something — but  when  I  have  an  important  drawing  to 
make,  I  mount  the  paper  myself.  Then  I  know  what  I  have. 
I  know  it  is  equally  stretched,  I  know  it  is  well  pulled,  I  know 
the  paste  is  not  two  or  three  inches  wide  on  the  edges  or  drops 
of  it  here  and  there  under  the  paper,  I  know  the  damp  paper 
has  not  been  scarified  by  careless  handling.  To  be  sure,  if 
something  goes  wrong  there  is  no  one  else  to  blame  and  that  I 
confess  is  a  drawback.  No  one  detests  drudgery  more  than  the 
writer  but  this  is  craftsmanship  and  part  of  t"he  job  of  making 
a  perfect  rendered  drawing. 

Cleanliness.  While  the  paper  is  drying  is  a  good  time  to 
clean  the  T-square  and  triangles  and  scale.  If  of  wood,  use 
gasoline  to  avoid  warping,  and  wipe  off  thoroughly  to  remove 
any  possible  greasy  residue.  Celluloid  triangles  may  be  washed 
in  soap  and  water.  Don't  overlook  the  edges.  Absolute  clean- 
liness from  start  to  finish  is  essential  to  success.  T-squares  and 
triangles  covered  with  months'  or  years'  deposit  of  graphite  and 
grease  no  real  draughtsman  will  tolerate.  The  hands  should  be 
washed  frequently  enough  to  keep  them  really  clean.     Once 


12    ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

grease  gets  in  the  paper,  you  may  bid  success  good-by;  lines 
will  crumble  and  crawl  when  you  ink  in  and  washes  won't  take. 

Transferring  Studies  to  Final  Paper.  The  final  paper  on 
which  you  are  making  the  rendering  is  no  place  to  study  the 
design.  Accurate  and  careful  studies  should  be  made  before  you 
start  the  rendered  drawing,  so  that  you  have  only  to  copy  or  at 
the  most  make  the  last  delicate  adjustments  of  whites  and  grays 
— and  these  you  make  on  tick-strips.  Some  people  use  a  scale 
and  some  use  dividers.  I  don't  like  a  drawing  pricked  full  of 
holes,  so  I  use  both  scale  and  tick-strip.  For  the  accurate  trans- 
fer of  vertical  and  horizontal  subdivisions,  take  a  strip  of  paper 
(ticker  tape  is  good  or  a  strip  of  tracing  paper  folded  with  a 
sharp  true  edge)  long  enough  to  go  entirely  across  the  draw- 
ing whether  lengthwise  or  sidewise.  Thumbtack  it  at  the  ends 
over  the  study  and,  using  T-square  or  triangle  as  the  case  may  be, 
with  a  hard  sharp  pencil  draw  the  lines  you  want  to  transfer 
on  the  edge  of  the  tick-strip.  If  they  are  to  be  changed  slightly 
on  the  final  drawing,  here  is  the  place  to  do  it.  Mark  the  lines 
or  groups  of  lines  so  as  to  identify  them,  not  forgetting  to  put  on 
the  position  of  the  working  line.  Then  pin  this  strip  over  your 
final  paper  top-and-bottom  or  side-and-side,  with  the  working 
line  coinciding  with  that  of  which  you  have  already  established 
the  position  on  the  final  paper,  and  reproduce  on  your  final 
paper  the  lines  on  the  tick-strip. 

Whites  in  Pitches  of  Platforms,  Foregrounds,  etc.  When 
landings  occur  in  flights  of  steps,  it  is  advisable  to  express  the 
fact  that  there  is  a  break  in  their  continuity  by  introducing  a 
space  between  the  bottom  of  the  riser  at  the  far  side  of  the  land- 
ing and  the  top  of  the  riser  at  the  near  side,  which  will  be  wider 
in  the  drawing  than  the  actual  pitch  would  be  in  execution.    This 


PLATE    I  RKXDERFD    RV    UTIO    K.    lit.GEKS 

Messrs.  York  &  Sawyer's  Competition  Elrcation  of  the  Federal  Reserve  Bank 

A  l)eaiitifiil  example  of  Mr.  Eggers'  rendering  and  one  he  considers  representative.     The  line  draw- 
ing was  made  by  R.  A.  Tissington,  who  prepared  it  for  rendering  by  shade-lining  it  very  carefully. 


THE  PRELIMINARY  STEPS  13 

space  to  express  and  indicate  the  landings  is,  when  rendered, 
made  much  lighter  than  the  steps  themselves.  A  similar  conven- 
tion is  observed  in  the  pitch  of  the  sidewalks  or  of  roadbeds 
running  parallel  with  the  face  of  the  building  or  of  foregrounds 
or  similar  spaces.  These  must  be  carefully  studied  in  advance 
and  decided  upon  before  the  final  drawing  is  penciled  in.  It 
is  necessary  to  make  quite  a  number  of  small  adjustments  in  order 
to  effect  the  desired  result  without  misrepresenting  the  facts.  In 
a  flight  of  steps,  for  example,  it  may  be  managed  by  omitting 
one  or  two  of  the  risers  in  elevation,  adding  their  height  to  the 
normal  or  true  amount  of  the  pitch  of  the  landing,  thus  securing 
a  wider  white  than  any  in  the  whole  flight  of  steps  without  alter- 
ing the  total  height.  The  width  of  the  treads  which  belong  to 
these  two  omitted  risers  will  have  to  be  redistributed  among 
the  other  spaces  or  thrown  into  the  width  of  the  landings.  It 
is  well  also  to  make  the  top  fillets  of  cornices  and  the  like  much 
wider  than  they  would  be  in  execution  in  order  to  give  a  bril- 
liant light  along  the  top  of  the  cornice. 

Studies  at  Larger  Scale.  Of  course,  I  have  here  assumed 
that  the  final  drawing,  an  elevation,  is  being  made  at  the  same 
scale  as  the  study.  But  often  the  study  is  at  a  larger  scale.  My 
own  practice  is  always  to  make  a  study  of  a  portion  at  a  larger 
scale.  If  the  final  drawing  is  sixteen  feet  to  the  inch,  I  usually 
make  an  eighth  scale  study  and  often  certain  parts  at  quarter 
scale.  There  is  a  certain  amount  of  translation  and  simplifica- 
tion to  do  in  reducing  it,  certain  eliminations  of  members  and 
detail,  but  nothing  makes  a  small  scale  drawing  look  so  real 
or  gives  it  so  much  scale  as  to  reduce  it  from  a  larger  scale 
study.  The  experienced  man  will  simply  reduce  the  principal 
elements,  getting  the  accurate  relations  of  greys  to  whites — as 


14    ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

in  the  main  divisions  of  architrave,  frieze  and  cornice  and  their 
subdivisions — in  short  get  the  character.  The  principal  in- 
dividual members  will  then  fall  into  place.  But  this  work 
should  be  done  on  a  separate  piece  of  paper  and  then  ticked 
off  on  a  tick-strip  as  indicated  above.  It  is  just  as  easy  to  get 
too  many  as  too  few  lines  in  a  drawing.  When  it  is  rendered 
a  drawing  simplifies  materially  and  if  there  is  too  little  draw- 
ing it  looks  thin  and  meager.  But  too  many  lines  in  too  small 
a  space  will  make  it  look  clogged  and  lifeless  especially  in  places 
where  there  should  be  a  brilliant  reflected  light  as  in  the  bed 
moldings  of  a  cornice.  Experience  is  the  only  teacher  here, 
in  the  absence  of  competent  personal  counsel. 

Preserving  the  Surface  of  the  Paper.  The  surface  of  the 
paper  must  be  preserved  in  perfect  condition.  Dirt  and  grease 
and  the  friction  of  T-square  and  triangle  and  scale  and  elbows 
and  instruments  will  wear  ofif  the  slight  calendering  the  paper 
has  received  and  make  it  so  pulpy  that  both  lines  and  washes 
will  spread  as  though  on  blotting  paper.  For  this  reason  the 
paper  must  be  protected  in  any  of  several  ways,  such  as  by 
pinning  strips  of  tracing  paper  across  the  parts  you  are  not 
working  upon  and  shifting  them  as  required,  or  cutting  open- 
ings with  flaps  in  a  shield  of  detail  paper  big  enough  to  cover 
the  whole  board.  Any  way  that  is  most  convenient  and  that 
you  like  best  provided  it  keeps  the  drawing  clean.  Erasures 
should  be  just  as  few  as  possible,  and  be  lightly  and  carefully 
made  and  the  rubber  dust  brushed  off  with  a  soft  desk  brush 
or  flapped  off  with  a  fresh  handkerchief — I  like  the  handker- 
chief best. 

Penciling  In.  This  is  not  a  manual  of  line  draughtsman- 
ship and  it  is  assumed  that  the  man  who  is  about  to  render  knows 


THE  PRELIMINARY  STEPS  15 

how  to  draw.  And  yet  I  have  seen  men  highly  rated  as  draughts- 
men who  had  not  the  faintest  realization  of  the  importance  of 
careful  cleanly  methods  in  the  preparation  of  a  drawing  that 
is  to  receive  washes.  Pencils  are  made  of  graphite  and  graphite 
is  used  to  lubricate  automobile  chains.  If  you  get  too  much 
graphite  on  your  drawing  you  will  so  lubricate  it  that  when 
you  come  to  ink  in  the  ink  won't  take  and  you'll  wonder  per- 
haps why  you  can't  get  a  good  clean  line  with  vigor  and  char- 
acter and  delicacy  in  it.  That  is  one  reason  why.  Use  a  3H, 
4H  or  5H  pencil  depending  upon  the  weather.  On  damp  days 
the  paper  absorbs  the  moisture  in  the  air  and  the  softer  grade  is 
hard  enough ;  on  hot  dry  days  a  3H  often  seems  soft  and  crumbly. 
Draw  with  a  light  hand.  Make  as  faint  a  drawing  as  you  can 
read  clearly  enough  to  ink  in  accurately.  Perfect  accuracy,  to 
assure  the  uniform  width  of  spacings,  windows,  flutes  of  columns 
and  the  like,  is  assumed.  And  get  into  the  habit,  until  it  be- 
comes unconscious  and  instinctive,  of  lifting  your  T-square  and 
triangle  from  line  to  line;  you  will  thus  avoid  wearing  down 
and  blurring  a  light  drawing  and  spreading  graphite  all  over 
the  paper.  A  rubbing  strip  of  detail  paper  doubled  over  and 
pinned  down  top  and  bottom  at  both  ends  of  the  T-square  helps 
to  keep  it  from  rubbing  the  paper. 

Keep  your  drawing  all  covered  up  when  you  are  not  work- 
ing on  it.    If  you  don't,  dirt  will  settle  upon  it. 

It  is  a  good  plan  to  lift  your  protecting  shield  or  strips  from 
time  to  time  and  brush  off  underneath.  Even  with  the  utmost 
care  the  opening  is  soon  seen  to  be  defined  on  the  white  paper 
as  a  light  grey  patch. 

Rubbing  On.    The  practise  of  "rubbing  on"  ("frothing"  * 

*  Apparently  a  corruption  of  the  French  jr otter,  to  rub. 


i6    ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

so-called)  or  transferring  a  pencil  study  made  on  tracing  paper 
is  not  worthy  of  consideration  in  the  kind  of  drawing  we  are 
here  discussing.  It  does  very  well  for  the  average  drawing 
made  en  charrette}  It  also  does  well  enough  for  many  draw- 
ings made  in  the  run  of  office  work.  By  this  method,  penciling- 
in  on  final  paper  is  almost  entirely  eliminated.  The  final  study  is 
made  on  tracing  paper  (with  everything  reversed  if  the  de- 
sign is  not  symmetrical),  turned  over  face  down  on  the  final 
paper,  and  rubbed  on  the  back  with  the  edge  of  a  key  top,  or  of  a 
smooth  coin  or  something  of  the  sort  until  the  pencil  rubs  off; 
the  human  thumb-nail  is  probably  the  best  instrument.  Damp- 
ening the  paper  slightly  will  assist  the  process  of  transfer  and 
holds  the  line — but  of  course  buckles  and  expands  the  study 
somewhat.  A  piece  of  tracing  cloth  should  be  interposed  be- 
tween the  rubbing  instrument  and  the  study.  The  rubbing 
damages  the  surface  of  the  paper  and  frequently  causes  ridges 
or  hollows  which  will  never  come  out. 

Transfer  Paper.  Another  way  is  to  slip  a  sheet  or  a  num- 
ber of  sheets  of  carbon  paper  under  the  study  and  with  a  very 
hard  sharp  pencil  go  over  every  line  of  the  latter.  This  gets  a 
lot  of  carbon  on  the  paper.  The  French  have  a  very  attrac- 
tive reddish-brown  transfer  paper  of  about  the  color  of  sanguine 
which  is  far  better  than  black  for  this  sort  of  thing.  A  rapid, 
crisp  transfer  made  in  this  way  with  this  paper,  a  few  light 

^  For  the  benefit  of  the  uninitiated  I  will  explain  this  term  so  often  heard  and  so 
wonderfully  mispronounced.  The  drawings  made  in  the  various  ateliers  or  studios  re- 
lated to  the  Ecole  des  Beaux  Arts  are  taken  to  the  latter  in  a  little  hand-cart  or  charrette 
which  waits  down  in  the  courtyard  while  the  drawings  are  being  finished.  Drawings 
sometimes  actually  receive  their  last  touches  while  on  the  cart  on  its  way  through  the 
streets.  Hence  the  expression  "en  charrette"  as  applied  to  something  done  in  a  tearing 
hurry. 


I 


THE  PRELIMINARY  STEPS  17 

shadows,  a  little  "piquagel'  ^  a  suggestive  sketchy  background 
and  you  have  a  very  attractive  sketch — but  not  a  perfect  rendered 
drawing. 

Lightening  Up.  The  drawing  completed  in  pencil,  it  may 
be  lightened  and  made  fainter  if  necessary  by  dabbing  it  softly 
with  a  soft  rubber  or  the  so-called  "art"  gum  and  carefully  and 
lightly  dusted  oflf  to  leave  no  particles  to  be  taken  up  by  the  rul- 
ing- or  freehand-pen  and  spoil  a  line. 

Toning  the  Ink.  The  next  step  is  to  prepare  the  ink.  Hig- 
gins's  Waterproof  Ink  is  perfectly  satisfactory.  It  has  a  very 
good  tone  in  itself,  but  I  prefer  to  tone  it  to  suit  conditions.  We 
will  assume  for  the  purpose  of  exposition  that  the  drawing  is 
an  elevation,  at  sixteenth  scale,  of  a  light  stone  building  with 
a  central  motif  with  some  columns  in  antis  projecting  strongly 
from  the  general  mass,  with  two  wings  at  each  side  pierced  with 
windows,  and  that  some  distance  back  of  the  face  of  these  wings 
another  portion  of  the  building,  say  an  auditorium  wall,  rises 
higher  than  the  central  motif.  (See  Diagram  B,  facing  p.  34.) 
At  every  step  we  take  in  the  drawing  we  are  making  it  ready  to 
receive  the  washes  which  will  bring  out  the  values  of  the  planes, 
model  the  building,  give  it  three  dimensions.  You  will  work 
uphill  and  under  a  handicap  and  your  drawing  will  not  be  so 
fine  if  you  do  not  give  the  planes  their  values  while  it  is  still  in 
pure  line.  You  will,  of  course,  dilute  the  ink  from  the  pure 
black  of  the  bottle,  dilute  it  'way  down.  For  the  plane  furthest 
back  the  ink  should  be  lighter  and  colder;  the  planes  in  advance 
of  this  should  be  successively  darker  and  warmer.     If  the  re- 

*  This  is  a  French  expression  derived  from  the  verb  piquer  (pronounced  Pee-kay).  I 
know  no  single  word  in  English  which  expresses  just  what  this  means;  approximately, 
to  pick  out  accents.  The  process  of  piquage  (pronounced  Pee-kazh)  will  be  found  de- 
scribed on  pp.  76-78-89. 


i8    ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

moter  planes  are  far  enough  back  to  warrant  it,  as  at  the  back 
of  a  deep  court  formed  by  a  U-shaped  building,  the  Higgins's 
Ink  may  be  cooled  by  the  addition  of  a  little  blue — Cobalt  or 
Ultramarine — never  Prussian  or  any  of  the  green  blues.  There 
is  nothing  so  unpleasant  as  a  greenish  black  line  or  wash.  The 
ink  for  the  first  plane  may  be  warmed  by  the  addition  of  Burnt 
Sienna  and  a  touch  of  Carmine.  Burnt  Sienna,  while  warm  in 
itself,  gives  the  ink,  when  the  two  happen  to  be  in  certain  pro- 
portions, a  slightly  greenish  cast  which  the  Carmine  corrects. 
Test  out  the  color  of  the  toned  ink  by  drawing  lines  of  various 
widths  on  the  margin  of  the  sheet  (or  another  piece  of  What- 
man) drawing  the  lines  at  the  speed  you  will  use  when  you 
begin  to  ink  in. 

The  Line  and  Its  Quality.  Determine  the  width  of  the 
line  you  intend  to  use.  There  is  a  good  deal  of  buncombe  cur- 
rent about  the  use  of  a  thick  line.  Men  coming  back  from  Paris,' 
accustomed  to  seeing  merely  effective  drawings,  which  wouldn't 
bear  inspection,  made  under  charrette  conditions,  went  about^ 
prating  wisely  of  strong  lines  in  atelier  French.  Anything  less 
than  a  sixteenth  of  an  inch  wide  these  little  masters  called  "wiry.j 
If  they  had  had  the  wit  to  examine  the  best  drawings  in  tl 
world — the  envois  made  by  the  Grand  Prix  men  and  of  whi( 
reproductions  are  now  available  to  us  in  D'Espouy,  and  thosi 
by  Viollet-le-Duc  in  the  Musee  du  Trocadero,  they  would  have 
seen  "wiry"  lines  by  the  thousand.  It  doesn't  matter  how  thin 
a  line  is  so  long  as  it  has  quality  and  beauty.  Some  men  never 
learn  to  draw  a  line  that  has  either.  It  is  something  in  the  angle 
at  which  the  pen  is  held,  something  in  the  touch,  the  amount  of 
pressure  exerted,  the  slight  crisp  lift  at  the  end  of  the  line  to 
avoid  a  dark  dot.     Some  men  bite  a  line  hard  into  the  paper. 


THE  PRELIMINARY  STEPS  19 

Even  a  thick  line  is  wiry  under  that  treatment.  A  firm  even  pres- 
sure is  required  which  carries  the  ink  down  into  all  the  little 
hollows  of  the  surface;  which  does  not  skip  along  the  high  spots 
and  give  the  line  an  inexpressibly  mean  and  crumbly  appear- 
ance. While  you  are  not  setting  out  to  make  a  line  drawing, 
you  want  to  make  a  beautiful  drawing — and  that  means  one  of 
which  all  the  elements  are  beautiful.  The  line,  in  quality  and 
value,  is  one  of  the  elements.  In  a  wash  drawing  the  light  and 
shade  are  what  should  count.  In  a  quick  and  hasty  render- 
ing such  as  one  must  make  sometimes,  when  one  has  to  cast  a 
few  shadows  and  pass  a  tone  or  two  in  summary  fashion,  the 
line  has  to  count  and  count  strongly,  to  give  the  drawing  vigor, 
the  shadows  on  such  a  drawing  always  being  made  pretty  light 
by  the  knowing  man.  But  in  the  serious  drawing  such  as  we 
are  discussing,  when  we  have  plenty  of  time,  the  line  should 
not  be  obvious.  It  should  be  just  firm  enough  to  keep  the  draw- 
ing from  being  woolly. 

Planes  versus  Lines.  Look  carefully  at  a  real  building. 
The  cornice  is  not  composed  of  lines  but  of  a  series  of  bands  of 
light  and  shade  and  shadow.  These  may  have  sharp  edges — 
but  neither  Nature  nor  the  builder  has  ruled  a  dark  line  along 
every  edge.  One  surface  lighted  in  a  certain  way  meets  another 
surface  lighted  in  a  different  way  and  there  is  no  line  properly 
so  called — certainly  not  a  line  of  another  value — at  the  junc- 
tion. I  have  tried  thick  very  pale  lines  and  thin  pale  lines  and 
thick  and  thin  dark  ones  and  I'm  for  a  thin  pale  line.  I  think 
it  is  easier  to  follow  with  a  wash.  When  the  line  is  thick  and 
light  your  wash  runs  over  on  to  the  line  in  places  and  looks 
slovenly.  The  wash  in  this  case  should,  of  course,  "consume 
the  line,"  that  is,  be  carried  to  the  far  side  of  it,  but  it  is  very 


20    ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

difficult  to  do,  just  as  hard  as  to  follow  the  near  edge.  As  for 
value,  I  like  it  just  dark  enough  to  be  both  firm  and  delicate 
after  it  is  sponged  down  ready  for  rendering. 

Fashions  in  drawings  change  with  the  years,  but  the  draw- 
ings reproduced  in  D'Espouy  have  stood  the  test  of  the  years  with 
their  changing  fashions — and  the  line  in  the  best  of  them  is 
delicate  and  does  not  count  as  line. 

The  Ruling  Pen.  But  the  width  of  the  line  is  a  matter 
of  taste  and  of  temperament  and  of  the  scale  of  the  drawing. 
I  merely  express  my  belief  that  coarse  lines  in  small-scale  ele- 
vations and  sections  kill  the  scale  of  the  design.  On  the  other 
hand,  in  small  scale  plans,  wide  soft  lines  in  certain  places  and 
used  in  certain  ways  are  wholly  desirable.  This  matter  will  be 
found  treated  of  under  the  rendering  of  plans.  The  tool  itself 
has  something  to  do  with  the  line.  It  must  be  sharp  but  not 
too  sharp.  It  must  have  a  thick  stifif  back-  or  under-nib  so  that 
the  pressure  against  the  T-square  won't  open  and  close  the  pen 
as  the  pressure  varies  from  end  to  end  of  the  line.  The  Alteneder 
(an  American-made)  ruling  pen  is  made  like  this.  If  too  sharp 
the  pen  will  actually  cut  the  paper. 

Free-hand  Pens.  The  best  pens  for  the  freehand  portions 
of  the  drawing  are,  I  think,  Gillott's,  especially  the  crow-quill 
pens  which  come,  a  dozen  on  a  card,  with  a  holder.  They  are 
adapted  to  the  most  delicate  work  or  that  of  a  coarser  nature. 
A  freehand  pen  of  rather  soft  steel  soon  dulls,  or  sometimes  is 
not  even  when  new  quite  sharp  enough  to  make  a  line  fine  enough 
for  the  occasion.  It  may  be  very  simply  sharpened  by  whetting 
the  sides  of  the  nibs  back  and  forth  a  couple  of  times  on  the  bare 
edge  of  the  drawing  board.  And  by  whetting  it  the  other  way,  it 
may  be  coarsened  materially — the  width  of  the  point  of  each  nib  is 


THE  PRELIMINARY  STEPS  21 

reduced  in  the  one  case  and  widened  in  the  latter.  It  is  well  to 
pass  the  point  of  any  freehand  pen  once  or  twice  through  the 
flame  of  a  match  not  merely  to  remove  the  film  of  oil  there  is 
on  every  new  pen  but  also  to  take  out  the  temper  a  bit  and  give 
it  less  excuse  to  sputter.  In  rendering  plans  it  is  frequently  ad- 
visable to  use  a  very  much  coarser  nib,  even  as  coarse  as  a  ball- 
pointed  pen. 

Shade-Line  Drawings.  It  is  a  very  beautiful  device  to 
make  a  shade-line  drawing  for  rendering;  not  carried  to  the 
limit  as  though  it  were  to  be  left  in  line,  but  with  certain  lines 
strengthened  so  as  to  assist  the  modeling,  particularly  lines  rep- 
resenting projections  too  slight  to  make  it  advisable  to  cast 
and  render  their  shadows,  such  as  the  shadow  side  of  rustica- 
tion or  small  moldings  here  or  there.  A  shade-line  along  the 
corona  of  a  cornice  helps  to  bring  it  forward.  But  all  this  is 
very  easy  to  exaggerate  and  must  be  done  with  the  utmost  taste 
and  judgment. 

Joint  Lines.  Joint  lines  should  be  thinner  and  paler  than 
the  main  architectural  lines  and  be  in  relative  value  to  the  planes 
in  which  they  occur,  stronger  for  the  nearer  planes,  lighter  for 
those  farther  off.  In  a  very  quick  rendering  the  joints  may  be 
made  a  good  deal  of  and  help  to  "furnish"  the  drawing.  But  in 
a  good  drawing  the  joints  should  have  no  more  value  than  they 
have  in  Nature.  Chifflot  is  as  responsible  as  any  one,  I  think, 
for  the  fashion  of  making  the  joints  count  for  almost  as  much 
as  the  architecture — just  as  he  made  fashionable  for  a  while 
very  narrow  stone  courses  which  gave  immense  apparent  scale 
to  the  design.  But  no  one  should  care  to  make  his  building  look 
as  though  it  were  built  of  that  lovely  invention,  rock-faced  brick. 
If  it  is  a  stone  building,  it  should  look  stony  of  course.     Study 


22    ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

Nature  and  be  guided.  If  the  building  is  brick  we  will  dis- 
cuss the  joints  when  we  come  to  talk  about  actual  rendering. 

Silhouettes.  After  the  drawing  is  all  inked  in  it  is  usually 
the  fashion  to  silhouette  the  various  parts  of  the  building  such 
as  projecting  pavilions,  the  general  outline  and  so  on,  with  a 
darker  line.  This  is  a  practise  of  which  I  approve  in  line  draw- 
ings and  one  I  have  followed  for  years  in  rendered  drawings 
also — but  I  have  come  to  believe  it  a  mistake  in  a  really  serious 
rendered  drawing.  It  is  a  heresy  that  has  crept  in  on  the  in- 
fernal charrette — when  will  we  ever  be  rid  of  its  malign  influ- 
ence? In  the  hasty  rendering  in  the  schools  (and  they  are  always 
hasty  for  some  or  another  bad  reason)  the  silhouette  is  indis- 
pensable to  help  bring  out  the  values  of  planes  there  is  no  time 
or  skill  to  express  properly.  I  believe  it  makes  a  more  beau- 
tiful, a  more  real,  a  more  convincing,  drawing  to  let  the  roof 
meet  the  sky  as  in  Nature,  plane  be  relieved  against  plane  as  in 
Nature,  by  the  accurate  value  of  the  tones.  Nature  sometimes 
softens  an  edge  but  no  one  ever  caught  her  drawing  silhouettes 
around  things. 

Cleaning  Off.  The  inking  in  completed,  the  pencil  lines 
must  be  rubbed  out  where  they  show  and  the  drawing  "dry- 
cleaned"  before  sponging  off.  The  cleaning  off  should  be  done 
just  as  carefully  as  any  other  part  of  the  process.  "Art  gum"  is 
an  excellent  thing  to  clean  with,  used  very  lightly;  a  fresh  Ruby 
rubber  will  take  off  the  pencil  lines  which  do  not  yield  to  it — 
a  green  rubber  is  a  bit  too  hard.  Go  over  every  inch  of  surface, 
and  examine  the  drawing  in  different  lights  to  make  sure  it  is 
clean.  Then  you  are  ready  to  sponge  off  unless  you  have  de- 
cided to  do  what  is  very  rarely  done  and  ink  in  the  outlines  of 
the  cast  shadows;  we  will  come  to  that  matter  presently. 


PLATE    2 


15V    Till';    AITIIOK 


Formal  riMi(lerint,r  is  not  iisiiall\- assoriati'd  with  ( lothic  suhitrts  and  this  (h'awing  of  an  angle  of 
the  Ducal  Palace  in  \'enice  is  therefore  given  as  an  examjile.  All  the  shadows,  except  the  window 
shadows  which  are  toned  with  blue,  were  toned  with  vermilion,  and  after  a  lapse  of  twenty-five 

years  are  as  fresh  and  warm  as  at  first. 


THE  PRELIMINARY  STEPS  23 

Sponging  Off.  Tilt  the  board  at  an  angle  of  ten  or  fifteen 
degrees.  Take  a  good-sized  bowl,  or  a  large  shallow  casserole 
with  a  handle  (which  is  the  best  thing  I  know  of  to  hold  the 
water  for  mounting,  for  sponging  off,  for  use  in  rendering,  and 
for  washing  the  brush  in),  fill  it  with  water  and  with  a  soft 
sponge — a  face  sponge — just  as  full  as  it  will  hold,  run  it  along 
the  top  of  the  drawing  and  then,  keeping  the  sponge  always 
full,  float  the  water  down  over  the  drawing  very  gently.  Some 
lines  and  places  where  there  is  a  good  deal  of  detail  will  run 
slightly.  Unless  the  paper  is  positively  flooded  with  a  film  of 
water  of  an  appreciable  depth  over  it,  such  lines  and  places  will 
merely  smear  and  the  ink  get  into  the  paper  where  it  is  almost 
impossible  to  get  it  out.  Parts  of  the  drawing  where  a  great 
many  lines  make  a  dark  patch  may  be  materially  reduced  in 
value  by  carefully  sponging  them  down — and  of  course  any  line 
or  group  of  lines.  Wet  the  paper  all  over,  right  out  to  the  edge. 
When  you  are  sure  no  more  superfluous  ink  will  float  ofif  the 
lines,  squeeze  out  your  sponge  and  begin  to  sop  up  the  water 
gently.  The  board  should  not  have  been  tilted  so  that  the  wa- 
ter would  run  off  at  the  bottom  in  streams.  Don't  rub  the  draw- 
ing with  the  sponge.  Just  sop  and  squeeze  until  it  is  all  off 
and  then  watch  it  to  remove  the  puddles  which  will  form  in 
the  same  way  as  in  mounting  the  paper.  Then  lay  it  flat,  under 
a  slow  fan  if  you  like,  till  dry. 

The  object  in  sponging  off  is  to  remove  any  possible  grease, 
to  remove  superfluous  ink  which  would  otherwise  run  when  you 
pass  a  wash  over  it,  and  to  give  the  paper  an  additional  shrink- 
ing so  that  it  will  be  sure  to  lie  flat  and  not  form  hollows  for 
puddles  to  gather  in  when  the  big  washes  go  on. 

Alum.     It  is  an  excellent  thing  to  dissolve  about  a  table- 


24    ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

spoonful  of  powdered  alum  in  about  a  quart  of  water  to  sponge 
off  with — especially  if  the  paper  has  shown  any  tendency  to  be 
soft  or  pulpy.  It  seems  to  re-calender  the  paper  and  make  the 
washes  run  well  and  crisply.  There  must  not  be  enough  to  show 
in  shiny  crystals  in  a  cross-light.  If  this  happens  sponge  off  again 
lightly  with  pure  water. 

Casting  Shadows.  Clean  your  T-square  and  triangle  again 
while  the  drawing  is  drying — for  they  must  be  clean  for  the 
next  job,  which  is  casting  the  shadows  when  the  paper  is  bone 
dry.  It  is  not  necessary  at  all  to  ink  them  in  although  it  is  oc- 
casionally done.  But  I  think  it  hardly  pays.  With  a  very  hard 
pencil,  5H  or  6H,  a  crisp  enough  outline  may  be  made.  If  you 
decide  for  inking  them  do  it  before  you  clean  and  sponge  off. 
But  where  complicated  shadows  fall  on  broken  surfaces  or  over 
ornament,  the  difference  in  color  between  the  pencil  lines  and 
the  ink  lines  makes  it  easier  to  run  the  wash  because  the  differ- 
ence guides  you  and  mistakes  are  not  so  easily  made. 

Complicated  shadows  should  be  worked  out  on  tracing  paper 
and  transferred  to  the  drawing  by  carefully  retracing  the  lines 
on  the  back  of  the  tracing  paper  with  a  pencil  about  F  in  grade; 
use  a  3H,  4H,  or  5H  to  transfer  them  with;  go  over  them  again 
and  bite  them  into  the  paper,  and  blow  off  the  loose  particles 
of  graphite.  Keep  your  pencil  like  a  needle.  The  outlines  of 
shadows  must  be  sharp  and  clean  cut,  not  fuzzy  and  indecisive. 
By  biting  the  line  in  with  a  very  hard  pencil  a  clean  outline  is 
secured  and  what  is  more,  a  little  groove  is  made  in  the  paper 
at  which  a  wash  will  very  obligingly  stop. 

Certain  construction  lines  have  to  be  drawn,  such  as  the 
diagonals  from  modillions  to  the  place  where  they  cast  a  shadow 
on  the  frieze — but  not  through  their  whole  length  over  the  whole 


THE  PRELIMINARY  STEPS  25 

cornice  and  frieze.  Find  out  where  the  shadow  of  the  edge  of 
the  cornice  strikes  the  frieze  and  draw  a  light  guide  line  straight 
across.  This  will  give  you  a  point  at  which  to  start  these  diag- 
onals which  should  be  drawn  with  a  hand  like  a  feather.  This 
hint  is  applicable  to  practically  the  whole  process  of  shadow 
casting.  I  have  assumed  that  the  man  about  to  render  knows 
pretty  well  how  to  draw  and  construct  his  shadows.  Henry 
McGoodwin's  "Architectural  Shades  and  Shadows"  is  an  ad- 
mirable book  for  the  beginner  and  as  reference  for  the  adept. 

It  is  by  no  means  necessary  to  cast  all  of  the  shadows  at  once 
especially  on  a  drawing  of  large  area.  The  principal  ones  will 
do  at  first,  such  as  the  main  cornice  and  the  shadows  of  projecting 
portions  upon  the  receding  portions.  Of  course,  additional  care 
is  necessary  later  not  to  soil  the  drawing  in  the  process  of  casting 
the  other  shadows,  for  a  soiled  shadow  wash  can't  be  cleaned. 
But  while  the  shape  and  extent  of  a  shadow  and  how  it  breaks 
over  projections  is  still  fresh  in  the  mind  from  having  just 
drawn  it,  it  is  easier  to  wash  in.  Also  in  some  cases,  as  in 
windows,  if  the  shadow  of  the  jamb  on  the  glass  is  drawn  at 
first  and  before  the  value  of  the  window  wash  has  been  estab- 
lished, the  outline  of  the  shadow  becomes  so  indistinct  as  to  be 
difficult  to  follow  if  the  window  wash  has  a  very  dark  value.  It 
is  better  to  draw  the  line  of  the  edge  of  the  shadow  after  the 
window  value  is  arrived  at. 

The  main  shadows  cast,  all  you  will  need  at  the  beginning, 
the  drawing  is  ready  to  render.  Before  that  there  must  be  a 
clear  understanding  of  the  materials  and  brushes  you  will  use, 
and  the  kind  of  rendering  you  will  attempt  to  produce. 

Brushes.  First  as  to  brushes.  For  all  except  the  sky  or 
background  washes,  a  No.  5  Red  Sable  Winsor  and  Newton  is 


26    ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

admirable.  It  holds  water  enough  and  is  fine  enough  to  get 
into  the  smallest  corners  if  properly  selected.  For  large  washes 
there  is  nothing  better  than  the  camel's  hair  brushes  which 
the  French  make  in  quills  into  which  a  wooden  handle  is  thrust. 
The  larger  brushes  of  the  same  sort  are  bound  to  the  handle  with 
wire.  They  hold  an  enormous  quantity  of  wash  and  come  to  a 
wonderful  point.  They  haven't  enough  spring  for  general  use 
in  rendering,  and,  carrying  as  much  moisture  as  they  do,  it  is 
very  hard  to  control  the  gradation  of  a  small  wash  with  them. 
We  will  refer  to  this  point  later. 

Selecting  a  Brush.  It  pays  to  spend  some  time  and 
trouble  in  the  selection  of  a  brush,  for  brushes  of  the  same  size 
vary  enormously  in  quality  and  characteristics.  Some  are  gen- 
erous and  let  the  water  flow  out  of  them  freely.  Others  suck  up 
a  lot  but  won't  give  it  up  easily.  Others  again  won't  hold  much 
and  let  it  come  out  in  blobs.  Some  will  come  to  a  fine  point,  and 
others  won't  point  up  at  all.  And  these  characteristics  effect 
other  combinations  for  the  confusion  of  man.  To  select  a  brush, 
pick  it  out  of  a  dozen  or  a  hundred.  Put  it  in  a  tumbler  of  water 
and  wabble  it  around  to  get  the  air  out  of  it  and  thoroughly  soak 
the  hairs.  Take  it  out  and  hold  it  with  the  point  of  the  brush 
upright.  The  point  should  be  perfect  and  the  brush  smooth  and 
symmetrical.  Go  through  a  lot  of  them  in  the  same  way,  lay- 
ing aside  those  that  won't  point  up  well.  Then  proceed  to 
eliminate  from  the  best  ones  until  you  find  a  perfect  one  which 
will  carry  plenty  of  water,  give  it  up  easily  and  keep  a  sharp 
and  symmetrical  point  under  all  conditions.  Try  it  also  on 
paper,  laying  a  wash  of  water,  and  see  how  it  acts,  and  also  how 
it  acts  when  you  wipe  it  ofif  on  the  edge  of  the  glass.  Nothing 
but  a  perfect  brush  is  worth  having. 


THE  PRELIMINARY  STEPS  27 

Some  of  the  Chinese  bristle  brushes  are  excellent  for  skies  and 
big  washes  if  you  can  get  a  good  one.  They  come  with  a  gluey 
dressing  in  them  which  has  to  be  washed  out.  If  neither  French 
nor  Chinese  are  available,  then  a  big  Red  Sable  brush  is,  of 
course,  fine,  provided  it  stands  the  tests  indicated  above.  But 
the  really  large  ones  are  quite  expensive. 

Care  of  the  Brush.  Take  the  best  of  care  of  your  brushes. 
When  not  in  use  keep  them  in  a  box  with  camphor  or  moth  balls 
in  it.  Don't  let  them  kick  around  in  a  drawer  or  stand  around 
where  moths  can  get  at  them.  When  you  are  using  a  brush, 
get  into  the  habit  until  it  becomes  mechanical  of  washing  it  out 
every  time  you  pick  it  up  to  use  or  lay  it  down  when  you  stop 
for  a  moment.  Otherwise  India  Ink  will  soon  dry  among  the 
hairs  and  some  day  when  you  are  laying  a  delicate  tone  dried 
particles  will  float  out.  And  never  under  any  circumstances 
leave  it  standing  on  i  ;  hairs  in  a  glass  of  water.  A  really  good 
brush  is  hard  to  make,  ha.  r(\  to  find,  and  such  treatment  deforms  it. 

India  Ink.  Then  as  to  j^d^^  called  India  Ink  because,  one 
may  suppose,  it  is  made  chietry  [^  China  and  Ja^an.  Chinese 
ink  is  believed  to  be  the  b^st.  Xt  varies  greatly  in  quality  and 
quite  a  bit  in  color.  The  soft  er,  poorer  grade  stick?  are  usually 
warmer  in  color  than  the  mo  re  expensive  If  you  can  find  a 
hard,  high  grade  stick  of  a  v  /arm  tone,  'lide  it.  It  is  worth 
keeping  for  yourself.  The  t-  rouble  with  buy\ng  ink  is  that  von 
can't  try  it  out  betore^^iu-rcnabe,  for  it  is  beautifully  gilded  all 
over  and  there  is  no  way  to  know.  But  get  as  expensive  a  stick 
as  you  feel  you  can  afford.  Better  a  small  good  one  than  a  large 
fat  cheap  one.  And  as  to  the  tone,  it  doesn't  much  matter  after 
all  because  you  will  tone  it  anyway;  the  warmer  the  original 


28    ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

tone,  however,  the  less  water  color  pigment  we  need  to  warm  it 
up  and  that  is  an  advantage  in  transparency. 

Rubbing  up  the  Ink.  To  prepare  the  ink  for  use,  take  a 
shallow  saucer  made  of  slate,  which  is  obtainable  at  any  dealer 
in  architects'  supplies,  put  a  tablespoonful  of  clean  water  in  it 
and  rub  the  ink  around  until  the  water  seems  black.  Dip  a 
brush  in  it  and  try  it  on  a  piece  of  white  paper.  It  should  dry 
out  a  very  dark  grey,  practically  black,  to  be  right.  Pour  this 
off  into  a  tumbler  and  cover  it  over.  Grind  four  or  five  table- 
spoonfuls,  which  should  be  enough  to  last  through  a  large  draw- 
ing. Take  another  perfectly  clean  and  freshly  rinsed  tumbler 
and  spread  o^'er  the  mouth  a  piece  of  muslin — a  small  piece  of 
tracing  cloth  thoroughly  washed  out  is  excellent — depress  the 
muslin  a  bit  to  form  a  shalL'^w  cup  and  wet  the  center  of  it  to 
facilitate  capillary  action.  Then  pour  in  the  ground  ink  slowly 
and  let  it  drip  through.  When  it  is  all  through  gather  up  the 
edges  of  the  rag  and  wash  the  rag  out  thoroughly  in  running 
water.  Also  theirst  tumbler.  Put  &'^  ^^S  over  the  empty  tum- 
bler as  you  di  '  befcie  and  strain  th  ^  strained  ink  again.  Repeat 
four,  five  or  six  or  iriore  times  a  ^  ^^Y  ^^  necessary  until,  as  you 
tip  the  tumbler,  there  are  n.>  pa/^t\cles  visible  in  the  thin  film 
of  fluid  on  the  Side  of  the  glass.     ^  Then  it  is  fit  to  use. 

Don't  forget  tc  wipe  off  the  sti  ck  carefully  ifter  grinding  and 
dry  it  with  a  rag  is  thoroughly  as  possible,  elst  your  costly  stick 
Will  ciacK.  iiito  srr.UJx'^L/iio. 

Keeping  Ink.  India  Ink  evaporates  very  quickly.  To  keep 
it  from  doing  so,  put  two  or  three  pieces  of  blotting  paper  sop- 
ping wet  over  the  top  of  the  glass  and  put  a  weight  upon  it,  such 
as  a  color  saucer.  Re-wet  the  blotters  the  last  thing  at  night  and 
in  the  morning  and  through  the  day  if  necessary — as  it  will  be  in 


THE  PRELIMINARY  STEPS  29 

warm  weather.  Always  keep  it  covered  up,  and  you  will  have 
a  perfect,  clean,  limpid  fluid  to  work  with. 

Blotters  and  Their  Uses.  Provide  yourself  with  half  a 
dozen  large  white  blotters  and  a  package  of  small  white  ones. 
It  is  much  more  convenient  when  running  a  large  wash  to  have 
your  water  bowl  and  godets  (pronounced  "goday"  and  meaning 
a  color  saucer)  nearer  to  it  than  they  would  be  if  off  your  board 
on  the  table.  A  couple  of  these  large  blotters  may  be  placed 
upon  the  drawing,  and  the  water  bowl  and  godets  upon  them, 
and  danger  of  splashes  and  spots  will  be  thus  avoided.  The 
small  blotters  are  useful  in  several  ways.  First  and  foremost 
to  keep  always  under  one's  hand  while  working  so  that  grease 
from  the  skin  does  not  get  into  the  paper,  to  help  in  mending 
and  patching  bad  places  in  the  wash,  and  to  take  up  surplus  wash 
from  the  brush;  by  this  I  mean  that  when  a  brush  is  recharged 
with  wash  even  after  it  has  been  wiped  on  the  edge  of  the  godet 
or  vessel  containing  it,  you  may  find,  when  you  come  to  apply 
it  to  the  paper  that  there  is  just  a  little  too  much  fluid  in  it; 
this  is  specially  to  be  observed  in  grading  a  wash;  exactly  the 
right  amount  of  water  is  essential,  because  if  there  is  too  much, 
the  new  part  of  the  wash  will  run  back  into  the  old  part,  creat- 
ing a  fan  or  run-back.  By  touching  the  brush  to  the  blotter  you 
can  satisfactorily  control  the  wetness.  Always  be  sure  that  the 
blotter  is  absolutely  clean  on  the  side  which  touches  the  drawing. 

Cleanliness  Again.  Be  sure  to  dust  off  your  table  and  board 
and  all  your  surroundings  frequently,  and  keep  them  clean.  Wet 
brushes,  laid  down  on  dirty,  dusty  surfaces,  pick  up  the  dirt 
and  transfer  it  to  the  drawing. 

Pigments  as  Toning  Agents.  In  a  later  chapter  will  be 
found  a  discussion  of  the  properties  of  pigments.     Of  all  the 


30  ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

colors  examined  there  are  only  a  few  we  need  as  toning  agents 
for  our  ink  washes  in  formal  rendering.  These  are,  in  my 
practise, 

Carmine  Raw  Sienna  Cobalt  Blue 

Burnt  Sienna  French  Blue 

and  very  occasionally  Viridian  and  Chinese  White. 

It  is  to  be  assumed  that  before  a  man  begins  a  serious  piece 
of  rendering  he  will  have  tried  out  his  colors  in  various  ways  and 
learned  something  of  what  they  will  do.  But  this  sort  of  prac- 
tise is,  of  course,  very  like  mashie  and  putting  practise  at  golf. 
It  takes  the  stern  fiber  of  a  Walter  Travis  to  go  out  and  just 
practise  for  hours  and  hours.  The  average  man  prefers  to  play  a 
game  and  learn  as  he  goes.  And  most  men  learn  to  render,  not 
by  practising  laying  washes  but  by  making  bad  drawing  after 
drawing  until  somehow  or  other  they  learn  to  make  a  good  one. 


II 

RENDERING 

Values.  The  ^Value"  of  a  tone  has  been  defined  by  Denman 
Ross  as  the  quantity  of  light  in  it  and  the  ''color"  of  a  tone  as  the 
quality  of  light  in  it.  Formal,  academic  rendering  in  monotone 
is  a  study  in  values.  Values  and  nothing  else.  The  relative 
value  of  plane  to  plane,  with  no  adventitious  aids.  The  archi- 
tecture to  be  rendered  by  such  a  method  has  to  be  pretty  good, 
pretty  carefully  studied.  Accurately  and  honestly  cast  shadows 
reveal  defects  and  bring  out  beauties  impartially.  The  princi- 
pal use  to  which  this  type  of  rendering  should  be  applied  is  of 
course  the  serious  study  of  a  piece  of  architecture  for  one's  own 
behoof — not  merely  for  the  swell  presentation  of  competition 
drawings  or  for  the  amazement  of  a  client.  (The  kind  of  lies 
the  drawings  are  often  made  to  tell  in  the  latter  instances  would 
be  precisely  like  cheating  at  solitaire  in  the  first.)  Therefore 
the  whole  process  of  rendering,  from  white  paper  to  the  finish, 
is  the  building  up  of  values. 

Pure  Monotone.  I  shall  treat  of  rendering  an  elevation  at 
sixteenth  scale  in  pure  India  Ink,  merely  toned,  first,  before 
dealing  with  the  modification  of  this  method  in  which  a  con- 
siderable amount  of  color  is  used. 

Monotone  and  Monochrome.  Curiously,  there  is  consider- 
able confusion  of  mind  in  many  quarters,  a  confusion  not  by  any 
means  confined  to  those  of  tender  years,  as  to  the  difiference  be- 
tween monotone  and  monochrome.     Mono-chrome  means  one 

31 


32     ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

color.  Mono-tone  means  one  tone.  If  we  substitute  "pigment" 
for  "color"  it  will  make  things  clearer.  If  you  render  a  draw- 
ing entirely  in  Burnt  Sienna  you  make  both  a  monotone  and  a 
monochrome.  If  you  use  a  mixture  of  Burnt  Sienna  and  French 
Blue  you  make  a  monotone  drawing  but  not  a  monochrome  be- 
cause you  have  used  more  than  one  color  or  pigment  to  produce 
a  certain  tone.  A  drawing  in  pure  India  Ink  as  it  comes  from 
the  stick  is  in  monochrome  and  in  monotone — one  tone,  one  pig- 
ment. If  you  add  pigment  to  the  ink  to  change  its  tone  you  are 
no  longer  working  in  monochrome  but  in  monotone. 

India  Ink.  When  we  last  heard  of  the  India  Ink  we  had 
ground,  it  was  all  strained  and  covered  up  ready  to  use. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  India  Ink  dries  out  many  shades 
lighter  than  it  appears  to  be  when  wet.  It  takes  much  practise 
to  train  the  judgment  to  a  point  where  one  can  strike  exactly  the 
right  value  at  once.  Of  course,  when  washes  are  built  up  by 
running  one  pale  wash  over  another,  this  is  discounted  to  a  cer- 
tain extent,  but  there  are  some  parts  of  the  process  in  which  this 
knowledge  of  exactly  how  dark  to  make  a  wash  is  absolutely 
essential.  This  applies  particularly  to  the  last  process  a  draw- 
ing undergoes  which  is  "Piquage." 

A  beginner  is  easily  deceived  also  by  the  fact  that  a  wash  run 
over  another  so  freshens  up  the  latter  that  it  seems  either  too  dark 
or  dark  enough.     Pure  water  will  have  a  similar  effect. 

The  Mother  Wash.  We  take  a  godet  of  which  we  have  a 
nest  of  half  a  dozen  ready,  and  fill  it  partly  full  of  clean  water. 
With  a  perfectly  clean  brush  we  take  out  a  partial  brushful 
of  the  ink,  put  it  in  the  water  and  mix  it  up  thoroughly.  Then 
we  try  it  on  a  piece  of  Whatman  paper,  grade  it  out  to  very  pale 
and  let  it  dry.     When  dry  we  decide  whether  it  needs  warming 


RENDERING  33 

and  how  much — or  for  those  who  like  cold  drawings,  how  much 
it  needs  cooling.  If  it  is  to  be  warmed,  put  a  little  Burnt  Sienna 
and  a  touch  of  Carmine  in  the  glass  of  India  Ink  and  mix  thor- 
oughly. The  darker  you  have  ground  the  ink  the  more  pigment 
it  will  take  to  modify  the  color.  Until  you  have  enough  experi- 
ence to  know  just  about  how  much  to  put  in  first  whack,  it  is 
better  to  build  up  gradually  to  the  tone  you  want  or  you  may 
spoil  an  hour's  worth  of  ground  ink.  When  it  is  to  your  liking 
as  shown  by  the  last  little  test  wash  you  have  laid,  it  is  ready  to 
use.  If  the  ink  is  to  be  cooled,  merely  add  either  Cobalt  or 
French  Blue  until  it  suits  you;  these  are  both  heavy  colors  and 
very  little  is  required  to  cool  ink  not  so  very  warm  at  the  best. 
This  glassful  of  toned  ink  is  the  "Mother  Wash"  for  use 
throughout  the  drawing  and  will  keep  the  drawing  in  tone. 

Planning  Out  and  Division  of  Washes.  The  beginner 
will  waste  a  lot  of  color  and  ink  at  first  and  until  he  learns  by 
experience  how  much  wash  to  mix  up  for  the  different  parts 
of  the  drawing.  And  it  will  be  perhaps  a  commonplace  of  his 
early  experience  to  find  himself  three-quarters  through  a  big 
wash  and  his  godet  empty.  If  he  is  canny  though,  he  will  see 
his  finish  when  he  is  half  way  through,  take  measures  accordingly 
and  begin  to  add  water  to  his  wash.  If  he  stops  in  a  panic  and 
begins  madly  to  mix  up  some  more  tone  his  finish  merely  comes 
right  away.  A  man  has  to  keep  his  head  all  the  time  and  keep  it 
at  work  thinking.  Experience  will  soon  tell  how  much  wash  to 
mix — when  in  doubt  mix  too  much.  Experience  will  teach  how 
to  plan  ahead  when  you  have  a  lot  of  separate  tones  of  the  same 
value  or  color  to  be  graded  in  just  the  same  way — such  as  win- 
dow washes  or  the  wall  behind  a  colonnade.  For  such,  mix  up 
enough  for  the  lot  and  take  out  into  a  separate  godet  what  you 


34    ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

need  for  the  first  one,  add  water  to  it  to  grade  it  out  until  you 
are  through  with  that  one,  then  throw  out  what  is  left,  dry  out 
the  godet,  and  repeat  the  process. 

Sometimes  a  wash  for  one  reason  or  another  has  to  be  divided 
up  into  two  or  three  parts  and  set  aside  until  each  is  used  in  turn, 
each  with  exactly  the  same  amount  of  color  in  it.  -When  using 
heavy  colors  especially  it  may  be  difficult  to  hit  the  absolute 
shade  a  second  time.  A  good  way  therefore  is  to  stir  up  the 
wash  thoroughly  and  then  divide  it  by  brushfuls,  so  many  to 
each  of  the  godets  which  are  to  hold  the  subdivided  wash.  Then 
as  you  grade,  put  in  one  brushful  of  clear  water  the  first  time  you 
recharge  your  brush,  two  the  next  time  and  so  on.  You  may  then 
be  pretty  sure  that  your  gradation  is  as  nearly  uniform  as  possible. 
Don't  be  afraid  of  this  word,  uniform,  nor  what  is  represents. 
Human  tendency  is  all  away  from  uniformity  and  so  far  as  my 
observation  goes  in  the  use  of  water  color  by  the  young,  the 
tendency  is  all  toward  sloppiness — which  is  not  to  be  confused 
with  freedom. 

Beginning  to  Render.  The  wash  is  all  ready  to  use  and 
you  think  you  are  about  to  begin  to  render.  Not  at  all!  You 
are  ready  to  begin  to  do  some  real  thinking.  And  as  an  aid  to 
thought  it  is  an  excellent  idea  to  make  preliminary  studies  of  your 
rendering  in  carbon  pencil,  pretty  carefully  done,  as  a  guide 
during  the  steps  which  follow. 

We  have  assumed  that  the  building  is  a  simple  one  "of  light 
stone  with  a  central  motif  with  some  columns  in  antis,  pro- 
jecting strongly  from  the  general  mass,  the  two  wings  each  side 
pierced  with  windows,  and  that  some  distance  back  of  the  face 
of  these  wings  another  portion  of  the  building,  say  an  auditorium 


RENDERING  35 

wall,  rises,  higher  than  the  central  motif."     (See  Diagram  B, 
facing  page  34.) 

We  have  therefore,  in  the  building  itself,  three  planes — that 
of  the  central  motif,  next  furthest  back  the  plane  of  the  wings  and 
the  mass  of  the  auditorium  beyond  these.  Outside  the  building 
and  well  out  in  front,  let  us  assume  steps  in  the  middle  leading 
up  to  a  terrace  and  at  each  side  of  them  a  balustrade  with  pedes- 
tals surmounted  with  sculpture. 

Sky  Tones.  Behind  the  building  we  may  assume  a  sil- 
houette of  the  distant  buildings  of  a  city  or  merely  some  trees 
which  show  at  each  side,  low  down,  'way  back.  Beyond  and 
over  all  of  these  planes  is  the  sky — the  sky  from  which  the  light 
comes,  which  is  full  of  air,  which  is  not  a  flat  vertical  backdrop 
as  in  stage  scenery,  which  arches  over  all  objects  on  earth,  and 
which  is  usually  represented  in  modern  architectural  renderings 
as  nearly  like  midnight  as  possible,  either  built  up  wash  after 
wash  with  a  brush  or  blown  on  by  air  brush  or  atomizer  and 
producing  the  effect  of  an  opaque,  black,  flat  curtain  hung  up 
behind  a  sheet  of  cardboard  on  which  a  drawing  of  a  building 
is  made.  The  mere  fact  that  draughtsmen  are  in  the  habit  of 
saying  "background"  when  they  mean  "sky"  indicates  the  com- 
mon misconception.  The  labor  of  building  up  shadows  and  the 
local  color  of  planes  to  a  value  which  will  hold  with  one  of 
these  coal  scuttle  skies  is  colossal.  And  men  are  driven  to  this 
kind  of  forced,  airless,  artificial,  black  type  of  rendering  in  self- 
defense — for  it  kills  anything  in  its  vicinity  and  makes  a  draw- 
ing in  a  reasonably  light  key  look  pale  and  sickly.  And  that  is 
a  bad  thing  to  have  happen  to  one's  presentation  in  a  competition 
or  an  exhibition.  It  is  a  convention  in  academic  rendering  to 
assume  that  a  building  is  brilliantly  illuminated  by  the  sun,  from 


36    ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

the  left,  the  light  falling  at  an  angle  of  45°  with  the  plane  of  the 
building.  You  will  be  entirely  within  your  artistic  right  if  you 
assume  that  although  the  sun  is  shining  brightly  over  your  left 
shoulder  and  casting  shadows  on  your  building,  a  typhoon  or  tor- 
nado is  coming  up  behind  it  and  that  the  sky  in  that  quarter 
is  black  as  night  or  lurid  with  impending  storm.  It  is  for  you 
to  decide  whether  you  want  a  sky  in  your  rendering  with  air  in 
it,  overarching  the  distance,  middle  distance  and  foreground 
and  lighting  your  building,  or  a  pot-black  flat  curtain  hung  up 
behind  it.     For  the  moment  we  will  choose  the  sky. 

All  water  color  work  is  built  up  from  light  to  dark.  That 
is,  the  lightest  tones  are  put  on  first,  the  darkest  last.  The  surest 
way  to  begin  any  water  color  rendering,  whether  in  ink  or  full 
color,  is  to  put  on  a  sky  first,  then  the  most  distant  objects  (which 
are  always  colder  and  lighter  than  the  nearer  planes)  and  then 
the  other  planes  as  we  come  forward.  This  is  a  general  prin- 
cipal subject  to  modifications  which  will  be  discussed  further  on. 
In  this  way  you  get,  first  the  value  of  the  sky  which  is  to  light 
the  picture,  than  the  value  of  the  next  most  distant  plane  or  ob- 
ject in  relation  to  the  sky,  then  the  next  plane — for  which  you 
have  now  two  measures  of  value,  the  sky  and  the  extreme  distance, 
— and  so  on,  the  measures  for  comparison  of  value  constantly  in- 
creasing in  number. 

Now  look  out  of  the  window  at  some  building  which  has  the 
sun  upon  it,  some  very  light  building.  Study  its  value  in  relation 
to  the  sky.  Under  normal  weather  conditions,  however  light 
the  building  may  be,  the  lower  part  of  the  sky  toward  the  horizon, 
against  which  the  building  is  seen,  is  lighter.  If  this  is  so  then 
the  sky  will  be  the  lightest  part  of  the  drawing-to-be. 

Laying  the  Sky.    Let  us  put  on  this  sky,  under  which  all  the 


RENDERING  37 

objects  we  subsequently  render  are  to  be  seen.  There  are  several 
ways  of  doing  this.  We  may  spray  it  on  with  an  airbrush  or 
atomizer  or  we  may  do  it  with  a  brush.  Of  the  blown  sky  later ; 
we  are  working  just  now  with  a  brush.  We  may  grade  from 
dark  to  light  or  light  to  dark.  In  Nature  a  cloudless  sky  is 
lighter  toward  the  horizon;  the  wash  which  represents  it  will 
be  darkest  at  the  top  of  the  drawing  and  to  get  it  we  may  either 
start  at  the  top  with  dark  ink  and  add  water  as  we  go  down 
to  grade  it  out  to  light,  or  we  may  start  at  the  bottom  with 
pale  ink  and  add  ink  in  as  we  go  toward  the  top  of  the  sky. 
The  latter  method  is  by  all  odds  the  best  and  safest. 

We  therefore  turn  the  board  around,  block  up  the  far  edge 
so  as  to  make  the  board  tilt  a  little,  say  ten  or  fifteen  degrees,  take 
out  a  half  teaspoonful  or  so  of  the  Mother  Wash  and  put  it  in 
one  china  saucer  or  godet  and  fill  another  godet  about  two-thirds 
full  of  clean  water. 

It  is  a  very  good  idea  to  dampen  the  drawing  by  passing 
a  very  wet  sponge  over  it  very  lightly  immediately  before  begin- 
ning to  lay  the  first  w^ash  and  letting  it  dry  till  it  is  just  faintly 
perceptibly  damp  to  the  backs  of  the  fingers. 

Take  the  brush  you  intend  to  lay  the  sky  with,  which  should 
be  one  that  will  hold  a  lot  of  wash,  and  first  wetting  it  thoroughly 
in  your  big  bowl  of  water  and  then  squeezing  out  all  you  can  on 
the  edge  of  the  bowl  (or  slatting  it  on  the  floor,  which  is  the  best 
and  quickest  and  most  untidy  way),  put  a  very  little  of  the  ink 
from  the  godet  into  the  one  with  the  clean  water — just  enough 
to  stain  it  a  bit,  barely  cloud  it.  (The  reason  for  taking  some 
ink  out  and  putting  it  in  a  godet  is  that  the  latter  being  shallow 
you  can  take  ink  up  in  your  brush  easily  and  see  what  you  are 
doing  and  how  much  you  are  taking;  and,  there  being  always 

46849 


38    ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

some  lighter  color  in  your  brush  in  the  course  of  the  work  we 
are  now  about  to  describe,  it  would  run  out  into  the  Mother 
Wash  every  time  you  put  your  brush  back  into  it  and  make  it 
undergo  a  constant  process  of  dilution  so  that  when  you  want 
some  really  dark  ink  later  on  you  haven't  it  and  have  to  grind 
some  more  and  tone  it.)  Work  your  brush  around  in  it  until 
what  water  was  in  it  is  all  mingled  with  that  in  the  godet  and 
you  are  sure  there  is  not  a  little  reservoir  of  clear  water  some- 
where up  in  it  to  run  out  in  a  minute  or  so  and  make  a  light  spot 
in  the  wash.  Load  your  brush  pretty  full,  not  so  full  that  there 
is  danger  of  spilling  the  load,  and  run  it  along  the  line  which 
represents,  let  us  say,  the  ground  level  at  the  sides  of  the  building. 

Following  a  Line.  Be  sure  the  icash  exactly  touches  the 
line  and  neither  falls  short  of  it,  leaving  a  little  light  streak,  nor 
overruns  it,  making  it  look  fuzzy.  This  is  absolutely  essential  to 
a  perfect  result,  and  /  wish  I  might  repeat  this  warning  on  every 
page  for  every  wash.     Also:  Keep  the  wash  evenly  wet. 

The  brush  may  be  run  from  left  to  right,  which  a  right- 
handed  person  would  call  "pushing"  the  wash,  or  from  right  to 
left  which  would  be  "pulling"  it.  Whichever  is  the  most  natural 
and  easiest.  When  you  are  sure  the  wash  touches  the  line 
throughout  its  length,  widen  it  either  by  strokes  from  side  to 
side  or  by  moving  the  brush  toward  you. 

Keep  the  wash  evenly  wet. 

When  it  is  an  inch  or  two  wide,  do  the  same  on  the  opposite 
side  of  the  drawing,  and  while  laying  this  second  wash,  break  off 
occasionally  and  freshen  up  the  edge  of  the  first  wash  to  prevent 
its  drying  or  making  a  streak  where  the  ink  or  pigment  in  it  may 
settle.  Go  back  to  the  first  wash  and  widen  it  another  inch  or 
so,  and  then  bring  the  second  wash  to  the  same  level.     Add  a 


RENDERING  39 

little  ink  from  the  godet  to  the  wash  you  have  been  using,  and 
widen  the  washes  at  right  and  left  alternately  as  before.  Keep 
darkening  the  working  wash  in  the  godet  by  putting  the  same 
quantity  of  Mother  Wash  from  the  other  godet  into  it  every 
two,  three  or  four  inches  depending  on  the  size  of  the  building 
and  the  height  of  the  drawing.  It  is  entirely  unnecessary  to 
give  one's  self  the  trouble  of  following  not  only  the  outline  of  the 
building  with  its  projecting  moldings  but  a  border  line  also. 
Far  better  to  run  over  an  inked  in  cutting  line  and  trim  the 
drawing  later  to  that  line. 

Work  quickly,  but  at  the  same  time  with  a  certain  delibera- 
tion, not  hastily  and  nervously  but  with  swift,  not  sudden,  move- 
ments. Keep  your  mind  alert  and  develop  the  faculty  of  watch- 
ing all  parts  of  your  wash  while  working.  The  end  you  begin 
on  is  the  one  which  will  dry  first  if  you  have  made  your  wash 
evenly  wet.  Float  these  big  washes  just  wet  enough  to  keep  wet 
till  you  have  finished  them.  It  is  a  great  mistake  to  run  them 
too  wet.  Also,  train  your  hand  to  be  as  light  as  a  feather 
so  that  your  brush  doesn't  touch  the  paper  hut  only  the  edge  of 
the  thin  film  of  wash.  This  is  of  the  utmost  importance  in  the 
use  of  heavy  deposing  pigments.  The  tiny  particles  of  color  are 
settling  down  evenly  on  the  paper  and  the  brush  disarranges  them 
and  makes  the  wash  look  muddy.  The  reason  why  it  is  a  mistake 
to  run  an  India  Ink  wash  very  wet  is  very  simple.  When  the 
wash  is  run  too  wet  the  little  particles  of  ink  are  floated  off  to 
the  edges  of  the  wash  and  dry  in  a  little  hard  black  line;  it  is  also 
much  harder  to  control  the  degree  of  wetness  throughout  the 
wash;  it  is  also  harder  to  gauge  the  amount  of  water  to  be  taken 
up  in  the  brush  when  you  have  to  renew  the  supply  in  it;  also  it 
is  very  difficult  to  follow  a  line  with  a  wash  so  wet  that  it  forms. 


40    ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

by  capillary  action,  a  little  bank  all  along  its  edges  and  which 
the  least  incaution  will  spill  over  the  line. 

Mending  Edges.  If  properly  done,  your  wash  when  dry 
will  show  a  perfect  gradation  from  very  light,  almost  white,  to 
a  darker  tone  at  the  top  of  the  drawing.  Give  it  time  to  dry  to  a 
point,  where,  when  the  backs  of  the  fingers  are  touched  to  it  it  is 
barely  perceptibly  damp.  Now  examine  the  edges  of  the  wash 
against  the  building  and  ground  lines;  if  they  fall  short  of  or 
run  over  the  line,  take  a  small  brush,  No.  4  or  No.  5  (an  old  one 
is  best) ,  and  wet  it  a  little  with  clean  water,  and  gently  dampen 
the  edges  of  the  wash  in  these  places,  blotting  them  with  a  fresh 
clean  white  blotter  until  all  traces  of  an  overrun  and  until  the 
little  sharp  edge  of  the  wash  where  it  falls  short  are  absolutely 
removed.  The  reason  for  going  over  the  edges  and  mending  the 
bad  places  at  once  is  because  they  are  much  easier  to  fix  up  as 
you  go  along  while  the  washes  are  pale  and  therefore  makes  a 
better  job.  When  a  wash  just  touches  a  line,  the  line  and  the 
edge  of  the  wash  are  one  clean  cut  line.  When  it  falls  short  or 
overlaps  and  dries,  there  is,  as  described,  a  little  sharp  dark 
edge.  If  this  is  not  removed  before  the  next  wash  goes  on,  this 
little  dark  edge  simply  gets  darker  until  it  can't  be  gotten  rid 
of  and  instead  of  value  meeting  value  as  in  Nature,  a  messy, 
ragged  slovenly  edge  prevents  the  values  from  meeting,  destroys 
the  illusion  of  light  and  space  and  air  and  you  are  conscious 
merely  of  paint  and  paper  and  bad  workmanship. 

Subsequent  Sky  Washes.  Lay  another  wash  exactly  as  you 
did  the  first,  throwing  away  the  wash  you  last  used,  and  starting 
again  with  fresh  water  faintly  toned.  Repeat  all  this  process  in- 
cluding fixing  up  the  wash  against  the  building  until  the  sky  is 
the  value  you  have  decided  upon.     If  it  has  a  perfect  grade  with- 


RENDERING  41 

out  streaks,  thank  your  stars.  If  it  hasn't,  it  must  be  made  per- 
fect before  you  go  any  further. 

Carbonaceous  Washes.  But  before  fixing  it  up  the  reason 
for  laying  this  sky  wash  or  any  wash  in  this  seemingly  laborious 
way  must  be  explained.  Every  time  you  try  a  short  cut  you  get 
dead,  carbonaceous,  non-luminous  tones.  Assume  you  have  a 
dark  shadow  or  any  dark  value  in  your  drawing.  If  you  try  to 
reach  it  in  one,  two  or  four  dark  washes  when  you  should  build 
it  up  with  eight  or  twelve  or  more  pale  ones,  the  odds  are  the 
result  will  be  dead.  A  dark  wash  is  infinitely  harder  to  grade 
than  a  pale  one,  and  run-backs,  streaks  and  fans  are  common 
incidents  in  its  history.  A  value  built  up  patiently  with  many 
pale  washes  is  transparent  and  luminous  and  beautiful.  It  is 
also  a  safe  method — and  there  is  little  common  sense  in  letting 
a  moment's  impatience  ruin  hours  of  previous  effort.  But  the 
principal  reason  is  transparency  and  luminosity. 

Imperfectly  strained  ink  is  another  cause  of  a  carbonaceous 
quality. 

Repairing  Defects.  Suppose  this  sky  wash  or  any  wash  is 
imperfect,  perhaps  with  streaks  in  it  or  darker  or  lighter  areas 
in  it.  If  it  is  very  bad,  the  best  thing  to  do  before  attempting 
any  other  remedy  is  to  take  a  big,  soft  sponge,  tip  the  board  to 
about  30°  with  the  horizontal  and  beginning  at  the  light  part  of 
the  wash,  carefully  and  softly  sponge  it  down,  getting  as  much 
color  off  the  paper  as  possible.  It  is  not  only  not  necessary  to 
wait  until  the  whole  wash  is  built  up  to  final  value  to  do  this, 
but  it  is  highly  desirable  to  do  it  the  moment  it  begins  to  show 
defects.  When  the  paper  has  gone  back  flat  again  and  dried 
out  until  it  feels  barely  damp  to  the  backs  of  the  fingers,  set  it 
up  in  a  strong  light  and  examine  it  critically  from  a  distance 


42     ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

and  from  nearby.  If  the  dark  streaks  still  remain  and  are  pretty 
bad,  the  spaces  between  the  streaks  must  be  darkened  so  that  the 
streaks  won't  show,  or  if  that  is  impracticable,  the  streaks  may 
be  turned  into  the  semblance  of  long  thin  clouds.  This  latter  ex- 
pedient is  dangerous  to  resort  to,  because  you  are  engaged  in  the 
presentation  of  a  definite  composition  which,  if  sensitively  bal- 
anced, may  be  thrown  out  by  such  extraneous  adjuncts.  There  is 
to  be  sure  no  excuse  for  very  bad  streaks  if  you  are  building  up 
a  value  with  pale  washes.  But  faint  streaks  are  frequent  and 
occasionally,  by  some  accident,  a  greasy  spot  where  a  finger  tip 
or  whatever  has  touched  the  paper  makes  a  light  area.  These 
may  be  equalized  by  stippling  or  hatching. 

Stippling  and  Hatching.  Take  an  old  brush  which  has 
had  the  point  worn  blunt  if  you  stipple,  and  a  sharp  pointed 
No.  4  or  No.  5  if  you  cross-hatch,  mix  up  a  little  very  pale  wash 
in  a  godet,  wet  the  brush  in  it  and  soak  out  almost  all  of  it  by 
touching  it  to  a  blotter  for  an  instant,  and,  with  this  almost  dry 
brush,  dab  or  hatch,  as  the  case  may  be,  carefully  all  over  the  spot. 
Be  particularly  careful  as  you  approach  the  edge  of  the  streak  or 
spot  not  to  lap  over  on  to  the  dark  which  you  would  be  merely 
making  darker  if  you  went  over  it.  Let  the  place  dry  (or  go  on 
to  another  place  if  there  is  one)  and  then  go  over  it  again  and 
again  with  the  same  wash  and  gradually  your  patience  will  be 
rewarded  by  seeing  the  bad  places  entirely  disappear  and  the 
wash  assume  an  even  gradation.  If  then  the  whole  wash  needs 
to  be  darkened  to  bring  it  up  to  value,  float  more  washes  as 
originally.  Air-brush  or  atomizer  skies  are  harder  to  mend  but 
a  combination  of  cross-hatching  or  stippling,  with  a  careful 
application  of  the  air-brush  or  atomizer  to  give  the  speckle,  will 
remove  practically  every  trace  of  trouble. 


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RENDERING  43 

When  there  is  time,  I  believe  in  laying  two  or  three  washes 
as  carefully  as  possible  and  then  sponging  off,  laying  a  couple 
more  and  sponging  off  again.  The  effect  is  to  soften  the  tones 
immensely;  they  seem  to  be  in  the  paper,  not  upon  it,  and  to  be 
light  and  air  rather  than  washes  of  India  Ink.  This  sponging- 
off  method  is  especially  applicable  to  detail  renderings  and  will 
be  treated  of  under  that  category  also. 

A  wonderful  sky  may  be  produced  by  laying  a  couple  of 
washes  as  originally  described,  sponging  off,  and  laying  a  couple 
more,  and  responging.  Then  with  the  old  blunt  brush  nearly 
dry,  and  light  ink,  begin  stippling  with  dabs,  not  stabs,  straight 
across  the  top  of  the  sky  in  a  band  one  to  three  inches  wide;  add 
water  to  the  ink  to  effect  the  gradation  as  you  come  down,  a  couple 
of  inches  at  a  time.  If  it  isn't  dark  enough,  go  back  and  do  it 
again  but  stipple  out  uneven  places  first.  If  well  done,  this  gives 
a  sky  with  vibration  in  it,  an  effect  of  air  and  space  which  is 
extraordinary. 

An  Alternate  Method  of  Laying  a  Sky.  For  those  who 
find  it  difficult  to  keep  two  washes  going  at  once,  there  is  another 
method  of  laying  a  sky  wash  which  may  be  noted.  It  is  appli- 
cable chiefly,  however,  to  drawings  which  are  divided  in  the 
middle  for  a  considerable  part  of  their  height  by  a  dome  or 
tower  or  the  like  and  in  which  the  sky  is  assumed  to  be  darkest 
at  the  horizon.  Mix  a  good  quantity  of  your  wash  of  the  depth 
of  tone  you  want,  pour  an  equal  quantity  into  two  godets  of  the 
same  size,  one  of  which  you  set  aside.  Turn  the  board  around, 
and,  beginning  at  the  ground  line,  run  a  wash  on  one  side  of  the 
drawing  only,  grading  out  from  dark  to  light  as  you  go  by  adding 
water  at  definite  intervals,  until  you  reach  the  top  of  the  dome 
or  tower  at  the  middle,  by  which  time  the  wash  must  be  diluted 


44     ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

to  a  very  pale  tone.  Thereafter,  instead  of  continuing  up  the 
center,  carry  the  wash  out  in  a  long  diagonal  over  the  top  part 
of  the  sky  in  the  other  half  of  the  drawing.  Then  blot  ofi  the 
edge  of  this  long  triangle  softly,  or  sop  it  up  with  a  pad  of 
absorbent  cotton.  Duplicate  this  process  on  the  other  half  of 
the  drawing  and  repeat  as  necessary  until  the  value  you  want 
is  established.  The  laps,  if  properly  executed,  are  impossible  to 
detect. 

Preserving  the  Brilliancy  of  the  Drawing.  It  may  occur 
to  you  to  wonder  why,  if  the  sky  is  lighter  than  the  building, 
we  do  not  run  the  sky  wash  over  building  and  all  and  save  a  lot 
of  trouble.  This  may  frequently  be  done,  particularly  in  small 
drawings  where  the  area  to  be  covered  by  the  wash  is  therefore 
quickly  covered  and  you  may  get  back  at  the  building  with  a 
blotter  before  the  wash  dries  and  blot  it  up  to  practically  white 
again — or,  in  comparatively  unimportant  drawings  where  you 
are  willing  to  sacrifice  brilliancy  and  perfection  to  expediency. 
But  although  in  Nature  the  tone  of  a  light  building  is  darker 
than  the  sky,  this  is  its  general  tone.  It  has  many  spots  or  bands 
in  it  of  a  much  lighter  value  and  to  render  these  truthfully  and 
successfully,  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance  to  save  the  paper 
white  until  you  come  to  these  things  in  their  course  and  then  you 
can  make  them  the  value  they  should  be.  Again,  frequently  for 
the  sake  of  brilliancy  it  is  necessary  to  leave  some  parts  of  the 
building,  some  detail  perhaps,  entirely  white,  the  pure  white 
of  the  paper  being  the  highest  and  most  brilliant  light  we  have 
at  our  command.  Just  here  it  may  be  observed  that  we  often 
must  make  our  lights  lighter  and  our  shadows  darker  to  attain 
brilliancy  in  a  black  and  white  or  monotone  drawing  than  we 
would  in  free  work  or  in  full  color,  because  we  are  denied  re- 


RENDERING  45 

sources  in  monotone  upon  which  we  may  draw  in  full  color.  A 
pale  violet  shadow  on  a  comparatively  pale  yellowish  or  orange 
wall  may  be  made,  by  just  the  right  choice  of  tones,  to  fairly  sing 
and  yet  be  light.  It  is  this  brilliancy  we  have  to  translate  into 
black  and  white,  and  which  we  get  by  dark  darks  and  light  lights 
— in  short,  by  strong  contrasts. 

Dark  Horizons.  Of  course,  under  certain  conditions  of 
weather  the  sky  appears  darker  near  the  horizon;  also  in  cities 
where  there  is  smoke  in  the  air.  This  is  an  effect  we  may  leg- 
itimately reckon  with.  Some  men  like  the  sky  wash  to  be 
darker  at  the  bottom  to  throw  the  general  value  of  the  building 
up  as  seen  against  it — make  the  building  lighter  than  the  sky  in 
other  words. 

Distances.  If  there  is  a  background  of  trees  or  buildings,  it 
is  well  to  pass  several  washes  over  them  before  putting  on  the  sky 
washes  so  that  they  will  be  seen  softly  through  the  latter.  A  very 
good  way  indeed  is  to  float  a  wash  on  these  distant  forms,  let  it 
dry,  and  float  a  sky  wash,  put  another  wash  on  them  and  then 
another  sky  wash  and  so  on  until  you  have  reached  the  relative 
value  you  wish  each  to  have.  The  reason  here  is  that  whenever 
you  pass  a  wash  over  the  edge  of  another  wash  you  slightly  soften 
that  edge  by  washing  off  some  of  the  particles  forming  the  sharp, 
crisp  edge  in  which  an  India  Ink  wash  dries  on  dry  paper. 

Combined  Gradations.  A  combination  of  the  dark  horizon 
wash  graded  up  and  the  sky  wash  graded  down  is  very  often 
effective.  The  dark  horizon  wash  would  represent  a  murky, 
smoky  distance  beyond  which  the  great  dome  of  the  sky  goes 
down.  There  may  be  objects  like  trees  or  buildings  in  the  dis- 
tance or  this  wash  itself  may  form  the  background.  Objects 
give  more  interest  to  the  drawing.     In  this  case  either  put  in 


46    ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

the  objects  first  and  build  up  the  dark  horizon  wash  over  them 
or  build  the  two  up  together.  But  to  get  the  effect  we  are  dis- 
cussing you  will  grade  the  dark  horizon  wash  very  swiftly  out 
to  clear  water  in  the  space  of  a  very  few  inches;  or,  it  is  safer 
to  start  with  clear  water  at  the  point  at  which  the  murkiness 
is  to  disappear  into  the  sky  and  add  the  murk  as  you  come  down 
to  the  horizon.  Then  turn  the  board  around  and  run  your  sky 
washes  as  before.  You  may  also  stipple  the  dark  horizon  wash 
on. 

Convention  versus  Realism.  Just  here  is  a  good  place  to 
sound  a  warning  against  attempting  too  much  realism  in  an  India 
Ink  drawing  of  an  elevation.  You  are  presenting  a  design  in  a 
conventional  way,  not  painting  a  landscape.  You  only  need  to 
suggest  a  background  in  order  to  locate  the  building  at  some 
point  in  space  and  avoid  the  appearance  of  its  being  suspended 
somewhere  in  the  air  or  built  on  the  edge  of  the  world  with 
nothing  nearer  than  Jupiter  behind  it.  A  compromise  drawing 
is  never  a  true  success.  I  have  tried  realistic  backgrounds  time 
and  again  with  geometrical  drawings,  sometimes  in  monotone, 
sometimes  with  a  good  deal  of  color,  sometimes  in  practically  full 
color;  but  somehow  the  geometrical  quality  of  the  elevation  was 
always  inharmonious  with  the  attempted  realism  of  the  rest.  I 
have  come  to  believe  that  the  simpler  and  more  conventional  the 
accessory  backgrounds  which  appear  at  the  sides  of  the  building, 
the  better.  Attention  is  then  concentrated  on  the  building  which 
is  the  occasion  of  your  rendering  the  drawing.  The  same  is 
true  of  foregrounds.  The  simpler  the  better.  Some  men  put 
the  foreground  slightly  in  perspective  and  indicate  objects  in 
perspective  at  the  sides  of  the  building.     But  unless  it  be  done  to 


RENDERING  47 

express  some  special  relation  of  the  building  to  the  site,  it  is 
better,  I  think,  to  dispense  with  perspective. 

Sprayed  Skies.  Since  the  introduction  of  the  air-brush, 
sprayed  skies  have  become  very  popular.  They  are  undeniably 
beautiful  when  well  done  by  an  expert.  They  usually  err  on  the 
side  of  airlessness  and  unreality.  As  a  rule  they  are  merely 
dark  curtains  hung  up  behind  the  building.  The  atomizer  sky  is 
not  nearly  so  successful.  The  spray  is  not  so  fine  nor  it  is  uni- 
form, some  of  the  drops  of  color  being  much  larger  than  others 
and  falling  on  the  paper  in  little  splashes. 

Templates.  To  spray  on  a  wash,  make  an  accurate  trac- 
ing of  the  outlines  of  the  building  which  should  include  those 
of  any  object  or  portion  you  do  not  wish  covered  by  the  spray. 
This  tracing  may  be  used  as  the  template  itself  or  the  outline  may 
be  transferred  to  a  piece  of  detail  paper.  Some  use  one,  some 
another.  This  outline  should  then  be  carefully  cut  out  with  a 
sharp  knife  or  scissors,  or  both,  and  laid  over  the  drawing  so 
that  it  accurately  coincides  everywhere.  Then  with  some  very 
fine  needles,  pin  this  template  you  have  made  at  frequent 
intervals  along  its  edge.  Be  very  careful  to  hold  down  all  cor- 
ners thoroughly,  both  exterior  and  interior.  Then  put  some 
weights  on  the  template  here  and  there  and  spray  on  the  sky. 
There  are  certain  parts  of  a  drawing,  such  as  a  plan  of  grounds 
at  small  scale  and  the  like,  for  which  it  is  impossible  to  cut  tem- 
plates. It  is  the  custom  in  Mr.  Goodhue's  office  to  paint  such 
places  with  rubber  cement.  This  is  quite  thick  and  should  be 
diluted  with  benzine.  It  is  painted  on  with  a  brush  and  after 
the  necessity  for  covering  that  part  of  the  surface  is  past,  the 
cement  may  be  carefully  peeled  off,  leaving  the  original  tone. 


48     ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

I  have  never  tried  this  but  it  sounds  interesting  and  entirely 
feasible. 

Air  Brushes.  Directions  come  with  the  air-brush  apparatus, 
of  which  there  are  two  principal  varieties — those  run  by  com- 
pressed air  supplied  in  heavy  metal  cylinders,  and  those  in  which 
you  compress  the  air  in  a  reservoir  with  a  foot  treadle  as  you 
work. 

Atomizers.  If  you  use  an  atomizer,  it  is  best  to  get  one  with 
a  metal  nozzle.  Those  made  for  spraying  the  nose  and  throat 
are  the  best.  It  is  amazing  how  fast  the  liquid  as  it  passes 
through  the  orifice  under  the  pressure  of  air  behind  it  will  wear 
the  hole  larger  in  a  hard  rubber  nozzle.  And  when  that  hap- 
pens, it  coughs  and  splutters  and  the  color  comes  out  in  large 
gobbets.  Fill  the  glass  reservoir  with  water  and  work  the  bulb 
until  the  nozzle  is  perfectly  clean.  Then  put  your  ink  or  color 
in  the  reservoir,  filling  it  about  two-thirds  full,  tilt  the  nozzle 
up,  point  it  away  from  the  drawing,  from  which  you  stand  well 
away,  and  squeeze  the  bulb  not  too  hard  but  quickly  so  as  to 
establish  an  air  pressure  in  the  reservoir.  When  you  do  this, 
the  spray  comes  out  in  a  continuous  veil,  not  a  series  of  jets. 
As  soon  as  the  continuous  veil  is  established  swing  the  nozzle  back 
so  that  the  spray  falls  on  the  drawing.  You  stand  well  away 
from  the  drawing  so  that  the  larger  and  heavier  drops  of  water 
which  will  fall  more  quickly  than  the  lighter  spray,  will  fall 
on  the  template  and  not  on  the  uncovered  portions,  while  the 
fine  mist  goes  on  and  falls  gently  on  the  latter.  It  should  fall 
as  nearly  vertical  as  possible  which  is  the  reason  for  tilting  up 
the  nozzle.  When  the  spray  is  driven  against  the  paper  from 
an  angle,  it  forms,  not  tiny  round  dots,  but  long  splashes  like 
exclamation  points.     Use  light  ink  and  build  up  your  value 


I 


RENDERING  49 

gradually,  also  the  gradation  of  the  wash,  which  is  controlled 
by  blowing  more  on  where  you  want  it.  It  is  well  to  spray  for 
a  while  and  then  let  dry,  spray  again  and  dry  again;  otherwise 
the  tiny  drops  get  together  and  form  bigger  drops  and  these  in 
turn  small  puddles.  Impatience  in  rendering  is  the  surest  road 
to  failure.  The  use  of  alcohol  for  thinning  the  spray  wash  is 
said  to  make  a  finer  spray  which  dries  quickly  and  avoids  some 
of  those  troubles.  But  it  is  harder  to  get  off  than  a  water  spray. 
You  will  find  it  necessary  to  watch  your  template  all  the  time. 
The  color  may  collect  along  its  edge  or  run  under  it  on  to  the 
drawing.  It  is  sure  to  buckle  with  the  spray  bath  it  gets.  And 
where  the  edges  lift  between  the  needles,  the  little  hump  in  the 
template  protects  the  drawing  just  enough  to  prevent  the  spray 
from  fully  covering  it.  Even  the  needles  will  make  light  streaks 
if  the  spray  is  not  falling  pretty  vertically.  To  avoid  some  of 
these  pitfalls,  change  your  position  frequently  and  shoot  the  spray 
from  different  angles.  And  place  thin  heavy  weights  along  the 
edge  of  the  template  to  hold  it  down.  I  prefer  detail  paper 
templates.  Tracing  paper  becomes  sopping  wet  in  no  time — 
and  if  you  are  called  away  in  the  midst  of  the  job,  by  the  time 
you  get  back  it  has  dried  and  shrunken  away  from  the  edge. 
With  the  best  of  care,  when  you  take  off  the  template  you  will 
probably  find  places  where  the  template  was  either  short  or  full 
or  had  shifted  and  either  the  background  does  not  come  up  to 
the  building  or  the  building  has  gotten  a  dose  of  spray.  Mend 
the  background  by  stippling,  or,  if  you  have  the  courage  and  the 
confidence,  cut  a  long  slit  in  a  piece  of  paper  the  exact  shape  and 
size  of  the  place  and  blow  on  some  more  spray.  This  takes  great 
skill  and  judgment.  The  spray  on  the  building  is  very  difficult 
to  get  off.     Even  the  slight  force  of  the  impact  of  the  tiny  drops 


50    ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

on  the  paper  seems  to  drive  the  ink  into  it.  But  off  it  must 
come.  Soften  it  up  by  moving  a  brush  quite  full  of  w^ater  over 
it,  blot  off  the  water  after  the  place  has  had  a  chance  to  soak, 
and  with  a  damp  brush  and  a  blotter  work  at  it  until  it  comes 
out.  If  it  is  very  stubborn,  let  it  dry  thoroughly,  and  then  go 
at  it  with  a  Ruby  rubber  very  gently.  Of  course,  the  rubber,  and 
frequently  the  washing  with  a  brush,  will  take  out  some  of  the 
lines  of  the  drawing  which  must  be  patched  up  again. 

Run-backs.  In  grading  a  wash,  if,  when  you  recharge  your 
brush,  you  take  up  too  much  fluid,  whether  pure  water  or  wash, 
so  that  the  new  portion  of  the  wash  is  wetter  than  the  portion  laid 
just  before  recharging,  you  will  almost  invariably  get  a  run-back 
or  fan;  that  is  to  say,  the  new  fluid  will  spread  back  into  the  old 
part  of  the  wash.  This  is  very  apt  to  happen  in  very  small 
washes,  as  when  you  are  grading  the  washes  in  windows,  which 
should  start  dark  and  be  graded  out  very  rapidly  to  light.  It 
merely  takes  practise  and  experience  to  determine  exactly  how 
dry  or  how  wet  your  brush  must  be  at  all  times.  This  is  one  rea- 
son for  tilting  the  board.  The  angle  at  which  the  board  is  tilted 
by  different  men  is  usually  an  indication  of  their  preference  for 
very  wet  or  quite  dry  washes.  The  wetter  the  wash,  the  more  the 
board  has  to  be  tilted  to  avoid  run-backs. 

Don't  let  the  last  of  a  big  wash  collect  in  a  long  puddle  at  the 
foot  of  the  drawing  as  it  will  by  mere  force  of  gravity.  Dry 
it  up  by  running  a  dry  brush  along  it  outside  the  drawing  proper, 
squeezing  it  out,  and  when  the  puddle  is  almost  gone  dry  it  up 
thoroughly  with  blotting  paper  and  watch  it  so  that  it  won't 
collect  again. 

Damp  Weather.    When  you  are  rendering  a  big  drawing. 


RENDERING  51 

pray  for  rainy  weather.  Washes  run  well  on  damp  days ;  on  hot 
dry  days  they  dry  too  fast  for  comfort. 

Removing  Blots.  Accidents  will  happen  to  the  most  care- 
ful man,  and  sometimes  a  large  drop  of  color  will  spatter  or  fall 
on  a  part  of  the  drawing  already  rendered.  When  this  happens, 
blot  it  up  instantly  but  carefully  so  as  not  to  spread  the  area 
of  the  blot,  and  then  be  patient  and  wait  until  the  spot  is  abso- 
lutely bone  dry.  Take  an  elderly  brush  with  a  blunt  point,  wet 
it  somewhat  with  clean  water  and  pass  it  very  lightly  over  the 
blot  a  number  of  times,  blotting  off  every  few  seconds.  Don't 
keep  this  up  too  long  or  you  will  make  the  surface  of  the  paper 
fuzzy.  Let  the  blot  dry  out  again  and  renew  the  operation. 
If  it  is  not  very  bad,  it  will  usually  yield  to  two  or  three 
treatments.  If  it  is  a  really  bad  one,  get  it  as  pale  as  you  can 
with  the  brush,  water  and  blotter  and  let  it  dry  out  absolutely. 
Then  take  a  Ruby  rubber  and  very,  very  gently  erase  the  spot, 
especially  around  the  outer  edge  so  that  it  will  be  easier  to  blend 
the  place  into  the  surrounding  wash.  It  is  not  always  necessary 
to  go  clear  down  to  white  paper,  merely  till  it  shows  as  a  light 
spot  in  the  wash  instead  of  a  dark  one  and  this  you  then  patch 
as  described  on  page  42. 

The  Hopeless  Stage.  At  a  certain  stage,  any  water  color 
drawing,  whether  in  India  Ink  or  full  color,  looks  to  the  begin- 
ner absolutely  hopeless.  This  is  merely  because  the  experience 
is  lacking  which  enables  him  to  look  beyond  the  moment  to  the 
finished  result.  One  of  these  moments  in  an  India  Ink  drawing 
comes  when  the  general  tones  are  established  on  the  building, 
and  the  washes  are  laid  in  the  windows  and  the  principal  open- 
ings and  before  any  shadows  are  put  on.  It  looks  hopelessly 
flat  and  thoroughly  discouraging.     In  free  work  in  water  color 


52    ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

it  comes  just  before  one  begins  to  put  in  the  various  little  accents 
and  shadows  which  model  the  objects  and  give  life.  These  are 
moments  for  the  exercise  of  not  merely  courage  but  cool-headed- 
ness.  It  is  at  times  like  these  that  the  beginner  is  apt  to  lose  his 
head  and  begin  to  be  foolish  and  instead  of  following  out  the 
definite  set  of  steps  he  had  planned,  become  confused  and  do 
the  wrong  thing  first,  and  very  soon  the  drawing  is  in  ripe  con- 
dition to  sponge  out  and  start  all  over  again.  The  experienced 
renderer  always  sees  the  final  result  toward  which  he  is  working 
and  holds  it  firmly  in  his  mind,  so  firmly  that  he  is  frequently 
surprised  when  kind  visitors  draw  his  attention  to  something  he 
had  not  yet  reached,  as  being  out  of  value  "or  not  just  right." 
Subconsciously  the  renderer  knows  it  is  not  just  right  but  it 
doesn't  bother  him ;  he  sees  beyond  it.  He  would  be  quick  to  see 
it  in  another  man's  drawing — but  not  in  his  own  until  he  is  ready 
to  see  it. 

Plane  Values.  Our  sky  wash  is  successfully  completed  and 
the  building  is  in  pure  white  against  it.  The  sky  looks  darker 
than  you  thought  it  would  and  wanted  it  to  be.  Don't  worry! 
It  will  look  lighter  when  you  get  something  else  on  the  paper. 
The  next  process  is  to  establish  the  relation  of  the  planes  of  the 
building  to  the  sky  and  to  each  other.  Here  again  let  us  have 
recourse  to  Nature.  Looking  out  of  doors  we  see  that  on  build- 
ings far  ofif  the  shadows  are  much  lighter  and  softer  than  those  on 
buildings  nearer  at  hand.  More  than  that,  the  relative  contrast 
between  the  shadows  and  the  color  of  the  distant  buildings  (their 
"local  color")  is  not  the  same  as  on  those  across  the  street — 
it  is  not  so  great. 

At  this  point  there  are  two  programs  we  may  adopt.  We 
may  either  make  the  local  color  of  the  distant  buildings  light 


RENDERING  53 

(and  when  I  say  distant  buildings  I  mean  distant  planes;  in  ren- 
dering we  think  in  terms  of  planes)  and  their  shadows  corres- 
pondingly light  and  make  the  other  planes,  as  we  come  forward, 
darker  and  their  shadows  correspondingly  dark.  Or  we  may 
make  the  more  distant  planes  the  dark  ones  and  as  we  come  for- 
ward make  the  nearer  successively  lighter.  In  the  latter  case 
we  keep  the  distant  shadows  softer  and  lighter  and  the  nearer 
shadows  successively  darker;  this  gives  the  utmost  brilliancy 
on  the  nearer  planes  because  we  have  here  the  greatest  con- 
trasts between  light  and  shade.  This  latter  of  these  two  systems 
makes,  I  think,  the  more  sunny  and  brilliant  drawing.  Let  us 
assume  that  we  have  decided  upon  the  latter  method.  This  will 
make  the  auditorium  wall  the  darkest  of  the  planes  of  the  build- 
ing, the  two  side  wings  next  darkest  and  the  central  motif  the 
lightest  because  farthest  forward.  So  much  for  the  building. 
But  how  about  the  balustrade  out  in  front?  Here  we  encounter 
one  of  the  conventions  of  rendering  in  monotone  in  which  effects 
of  relief  and  of  distance  are  obtained  by  contrasts.  We  want  to 
concentrate  the  interest  in  the  central  motif.  To  do  that  it 
must  exhibit  the  greatest  brilliancy,  therefore  the  greatest  degree 
of  contrast,  the  highest  lights  and  the  darkest  relative  darks.  We 
can  hardly  then  make  the  balustrade  lighter  than  the  central 
motif  even  if  it  is  nearer  to  us.  We  therefore  bid  Nature  au 
revoir  at  this  point  and  embrace  a  convention  by  making  the 
balustrade  the  darkest  plane  we  have.  An  entirely  justifiable 
departure,  inconsistent  though  it  seem. 

The  other  seeming  inconsistency  in  making  the  more  distant 
planes  the  darker  ones  is  explained  by  this  same  matter  of  bril- 
liancy of  contrast.  We  may  bring  objects  forward  by  flooding 
them  with  light  (which  is  what  we  have  decided  to  do  here) 


54    ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

and  we  throw  a  veil  of  atmosphere  between  ourselves  and  the. 
planes  further  off,  or  rather  a  series  of  veils  as  the  planes  recede, 
by  passing  tones  over  them  shutting  off  more  and  more  light. 

If  we  had  adopted  the  convention  first  stated,  with  the  most 
distant  planes  the  lightest,  and  the  principal  plane  the  darkest, 
then,  in  order  to  make  the  balustrade  stand  forward  we  would 
make  it  lighter  than  the  principal  plane  behind  it. 

Passing  the  First  Plane  Wash.  We  mix  up  a  very,  very 
pale  wash  and  pass  it  over  the  entire  building.  If  the  building 
is  long  and  low  it  will  be  better  to  start  at  one  end  and  go  straight 
across  from  top  to  bottom  in  one  band  rather  than  attempt  to  lay 
such  a  long  wash  from  end  to  end  of  the  building. 

This  wash  (and  this  principle  applies  to  every  wash  you  lay, 
no  matter  how  large)  should  still  be  perceptibly  damp  when  you 
have  finished  it. 

Carrying  the  Wash  Out  to  the  End.  Most  beginners, 
and  indeed  some  others,  do  not  seem  to  realize  the  importance  of 
carrying  all  washes  out  to  the  very  end,  even  though  they  are  so 
light  at  last  that  they  seem  to  be  clear  water.  No  matter  how 
large  or  how  small  a  wash  may  be,  nor  how  quickly  it  grades 
from  dark  out  to  nothing,  keep  on  carrying  the  wash  over  the 
whole  area  to  be  covered.  For  instance,  you  may  be  building  up 
a  graded  wash  on  the  wall  back  of  a  colonnade.  This  may  grade 
from  very  dark  at  the  top  to  very  light  at  the  bottom  or  vice  versa. 
I  have  seen  men,  as  soon  as  the  wash  was  graded  out  to  almost 
clear  water,  dry  off  their  brush  and  give  a  few  dabs  along  the 
edge  to  fade  it  out,  sometimes  even  blot  it  up  with  the  heel  of  the 
hand  or  a  handkerchief  or  a  blotter.  This  is  bad  workmanship 
and  if  done  a  number  of  times  in  the  same  area,  results  in  build- 
ing up  all  sorts  of  little  streaks  under  the  wash  which  give  an 


(•Z6  "d  03c^)      -Xpms  oiqissod 
5S3SO[0   oi()  Xi?cIoj   ip.w   ij      -SuiAMUi)   sii]}    III   saoBid  Aut?iii   ui   posii   SI   o^iAop   siqx     "(osiTA    puc 
pjjsopod  r)i|i   |()   ]\n\]  in  si;)   A\()piH|s  i;  ui  Ajjiiop  puoj  siiuoj  o>ji?iu  oi  jo  .-)ui?|d  joqjouc  )suit?3R 
ji   OAOi[.u    (l[.>i|   ())    iiijoj    V.    JO    .>J<p,)    .iiji    iiuoii!    pinMj    u|Si|    i;   jo    uoiju-iauo.)   om    njiuisniij    oj^ 

^^  Id  'I  7".l   '''>il>'lii\'  .iJiii.).iiiijjj]\p  siuJiu'Svuj  s/no4f:^,(J  tuiuf  pjjnpojcfJU 

Xai3D\V     O    AH  tr    HiV'Id 


RENDERING 


55 


indescribably  dry  and  mean  and  mealy  appearance.  Remember 
this  about  India  Ink:  That  one  drop  in  a  pint  of  water  will  stain 
that  water  just  enough  to  modify  the  color  of  white  paper  and  by 
passing  a  wash  of  this  stained  water  many  times  over  the  same 
spot,  you  will  build  up  a  surprisingly  dark  value.  It  is  for  this 
reason  that  washes  must  be  carried  out  to  the  very  end  and  even 
when  they  seem,  by  that  time,  to  be  composed  of  clean  water. 

The  Relative  Illumination  of  Planes.  The  accompanying 
diagrams  illustrate  a  matter  which  must  now  be  considered — 
the  relative  illumination  of  planes. 


SECTION  ELEVATION 

DIAGRAM    A 

Referring  to  Diagram  A  it  is  evident,  with  the  established 
geometrical  convention  that  the  rays  of  light  are  falling  at  an 
angle  of  45°,  that  Plane  A  will  be  the  most  brilliantly  illuminated 
because  it  receives  the  full  power  of  the  light  rays  L,  L,  L.  They 
strike  Plane  B  and  Plane  B  ^  a  glancing  blow,  as  it  were,  and  if  we 


56     ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

could  see  Plane  D  we  would  find  it  illuminated  in  the  same  de- 
gree as  B  and  B\  each  of  which  being  parallel  and  close  to  each 
other  we  may  assume  to  receive  the  same  amount  of  light.  Plane 
C  is  not  illuminated  at  all  and  is  therefore  in  ''shade" — not  in 
shadow.     That  portion  of  B^  coresponding  to  the  projection  of 
the  lower  edge  of  C  beyond  the  face  of  B^  is  in  shadow — the 
shadow  cast  by  Projection  P.     Besides  the  direct  light  falling 
on  the  object  there  is  another  kind  of  light  from  other  directions 
— reflected  light.     But  this  we  will  take  up  in  its  place.    We 
are  now  merely  studying  the  planes  preliminary  to  establishing 
their  values  with  washes  and  so  preparing  them  to   receive 
shadows.     It  is  evident  then  that  vertical  planes  are  by  no  means 
the  most  brilliantly  lighted.     The  pitches  on  the  tops  of  cor- 
nices, string-  and  base-courses,  steps  and  platforms  and  the  like 
correspond  in  their  degree  to  Plane  A.     (Also,  if  we  turn  the 
diagram  around  and  look  at  it  as  a  plan  instead  of  a  section 
we  see  that  if  we  had  a  polygonal  form  such  as  a  tower,  the  left 
hand  face  A  would  be  brightest,  B  and  B^  which  directly  face  us 
would  be  next,  and  C  would  be  in  shade.)     These  pitches  must 
therefore  be  left  lighter  than  any  other  part  of  the  building — 
each  of  course  in  relative  value  to  those  planes  of  the  building 
on  which  they  occur.     That  on  the  cornice  of  the  auditorium 
wall  which  is  furthest  back  will  be  in  relation  to  the  value 
established  for  that  wall — which  is  Plane  B  modified  in  brilliancy 
by  distance,  the  efifect  of  distance  being  produced  by  lowering 
the  brilliancy  of  the  white  paper  by  passing  washes  over  it. 
Therefore  it  is  self-evident  that  the  pitches  on  the  central  motif 
will  be  the  most  brilliant  of  all — the  pitches,   and  the  high 
lights  on  the  columns  which  correspond  to  Plane  A  as  a  plan, 
as  we  have  seen. 


RENDERING  57 

Building  up  the  Plane  Values.  Float  ^  second  wash  over 
the  whole  drawing  leaving  out  the  Planes  A  in  the  central  motif. 
Then  a  third  over  the  whole  of  the  side  wings  and  auditorium 
walls.  A  fourth  over  the  side  wings  and  auditorium  leaving  out 
the  Planes  A  in  the  wings.  A  fifth  over  the  whole  auditorium 
wall  and  a  sixth  leaving  out  Planes  A  on  this  latter.   (Page  34.) 

By  so  doing  you  have  established  all  of  these  planes  in  relative 
values  and  the  values  of  all  ''A"  surfaces  to  all  "B"  surfaces 
in  all  of  the  three  planes  of  the  building.  This  does  not  neces- 
sarily mean  that  the  plane  of  the  wings  now  seems  to  be  enough 
back  from  the  central  motif,  nor  that  the  auditorium  wall  is  in 
its  correct  relation  to  either.  You  have  merely  established  a 
value.  You  get  the  true  values,  which  will  express  the  truth 
of  your  building  in  plan,  by  merely  extending  this  principle  and 
multiplying  washes  until  the  values  are  right. 

This  is  the  rendering  of  plane  values  in  a  nutshell.  It  is 
applicable  to  all  rendering  and  all  planes.  Whenever  you  are 
puzzled,  recall  the  principle  and  everything  becomes  clear. 

Curved  Surfaces.  Curved  surfaces  may  be  considered  as 
merely  polygons  with  an  infinite  number  of  sides  instead  of  the 
semi-octagon  given  in  the  diagram.  You  have  but  to  apply  the 
principle  and  you  will  see  how  any  curved  surface  is  lighted, 
whether  cylindrical  like  a  column,  spherical  as  in  a  dome,  or 
compound  as  in  an  ogee.  Suppose  you  have  a  surface,  a  section 
through  which  cannot  be  struck  with  a  compass  but  is  perhaps 
a  parabola.  Merely  divide  the  surface  into  a  large  number  of 
small  planes  and  compare  the  figure  with  the  simple  semi-octagon 
and  you  will  see  at  once  which  are  the  lightest,  which  the  inter- 
mediate, and  which  the  darkest.  Once  master  this  principle  and 
nothing  can  stump  you. 


58    ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 


Intermediate  Subordinate  Planes.  We  have  assumed  "some 
columns"  with  the  central  motif.  We  have  assumed  further 
that  they  are  in  antis  and  that  the  entrance  door  is  in  a  wall  a  few 
feet  behind  the  columns.  This  wall  will  give  us  a  plane  inter- 
mediate between  the  principal  plane  and  the  face  of  the  side 
wings  of  the  building.     Upon  this  plane  we  pass  washes  sufficient 

L, 


ii"**- ' 


B 

+ 

C 


^i^'^iSiiin^kaMik 


.•.GROJUND.V, 


SECTION 

DIAGRAM 


ELEVATION 


in  number  to  establish  its  relation  to  the  other  planes.  For  the 
time  being  we  leave  the  balustrade  as  it  is.  In  fact,  since  it  is  to 
be  so  dark  anyway,  we  have  included  it  in  the  washes  passed  over 
the  side  wings  and  it  is  at  present  of  their  value. 

Before  we  proceed  to  lay  shadow  washes  we  must  understand 
the  principle  of  reflected  lights  and  shadows. 

Reflected  Light.  Here  in  Diagram  C  is  our  octagonal  ar- 
rangement of  planes  again,  with  a  ground  plane  and  some  addi- 


RENDERING 


59 


tional  light  rays,  from  which  it  will  be  seen  that  we  must  reckon 
with  more  than  one  source  of  light — the  brilliant  light  of  the  sun 
coming  down  from  the  left  and  striking  some  plane  like  the 
ground  plane  and  rebounding  against  the  object  with  a  some- 
what diminished  brilliancy — diminished  because  part  is  lost  by 
absorption.  Examine  the  course  of  the  Ray  X  which  strikes  the 
ground,  rebounds,  hits  the  underside  of  P  and  bounces  off  on  to 
Plane  B*  in  that  portion  of  it  covered  by  S  which  is  the  shadow 
cast  by  the  Projection  P.    Assume  Ray  X  to  be  merely  the  central 


SECTION 


ILLVATIOK 

DIAGRAM    D 


ray  of  a  group.  It  is  evident  that  these  rays  as  they  are  reflected 
from  plane  to  plane  will  materially  modify  the  value  of  the 
Shadow  S.  Also  that  the  brilliancy  of  the  reflected  light  dimin- 
ishes in  proportion  to  the  distance  of  the  reflecting  plane  from  the 
plane  which  receives  the  reflection.  To  make  this  clearer  we 
will  enlarge  the  *T"  and  "S"  part  of  our  diagram. 

Ray  X  strikes  nearest  the  outer  edge  of  P  and  therefore  when 
reflected  from  P  strikes  nearest  the  lower  edge  of  the  Shadow 
S  (the  angle  of  reflection  being  always  the  same  as  the  angle  of 
incidence) .     X^  strikes  as  shown.     X^P  to  X^S  is  a  much  shorter 


6o    ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

distance  than  X-P  to  X-S  and  the  intermediate  rays  are  also 
shorter  and  longer  in  their  proportion.  Therefore  the  reflected 
light  is  stronger  in  the  neighborhood  of  X^P  and  X^S  than  in  that 
of  X-P  and  X-S.  Hence  the  upper  part  of  the  Shadow  S  near- 
est to  P  is  lighter  than  the  lower  part.  We  also  observe  that 
Ray  Y  and  its  group  strike  Plane  C,  the  efifect  of  which  is  to 
lighten  it.  If  the  ground  plane  or  reflecting  surface  were  as- 
sumed to  be  at  a  very  great  distance,  there  would  be  so  little 
reflected  light  as  to  be  negligible. 


SECTION 


BLEVATl ON 


DIAGRAM   E 

Now  let  us  modify  the  diagram  a  trifle  by  tilting  P  somewhat 
so  that  we  may  see  it  in  elevation. 

Rays  X^  and  X^  are  part  of  the  same  group  of  rays  which 
we  have  observed  as  being  reflected  up  into  the  triangle  formed 
by  P  and  S  and  a  line  joining  their  extremities.  This  group 
and  an  infinite  company  of  others  we  do  not  show,  strike  Plane 
B^  both  inside  and  outside  of  the  Shadow  Area  S  and  are  re- 
flected up  against  P  so  that  instead  of  being  very  dark  and  flat 
it  becomes  luminous  and  has  a  luminous  gradation,  the  outer 


RENDERING 


6i 


portion  near  C  being  darkest  and  that  nearest  B^  the  lightest,  for 
the  same  reason  that  has  been  given  for  the  gradation  of  S. 

In  rendering,  all  shadows  (and  indeed  all  planes)  should 
be  graded — and  these  diagrams  furnish  the  explanation.  Be- 
fore taking  up  reflected  shadows,  let  us  go  a  little  further  with 
reflected  light  while  we  are  about  it,  with  special  reference  to 
two  aspects  of  it — reflected  lights  in  vertical  shadows  and  the 
grading  of  planes.     (See  Diagram  F.)     Reflected  light  is  as- 

J 


REFLKTED- 
LIGHT  RAYS 


LLEVATI ON 

DIAGRAM    F 

sumed  to  come  from  the  Right,  so  that  the  reflected-light  rays, 
acting  as  we  have  previously  seen,  would  make  the  portion  of 
the  vertical  shadow  nearest  P  the  lightest  and  there  would  be 
an  even  gradation  from  the  right-hand  side  of  this  shadow  to 
the  corner  at  the  junction  of  P  and  S  in  plan. 

Besides  this  gradation  there  is  another,  from  the  top  of  S 
in  elevation  to  the  bottom  at  the  ground  line,  caused  by  the 
reflected  light  rays  from  the  ground  striking  into  the  Shadow  S 
most  strongly  at  the  bottom  and  of  course  with  diminishing 


62     ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

force  the  further  from  the  ground  they  have  to  travel.  So 
that  such  shadows  are  lightest  in  their  lower  part.  All  this  may 
be  very  beautifully  seen  on  the  southerly  front  of  the  Sub- 
Treasury  Building  at  the  head  of  Broad  Street  in  New  York 
on  a  sunny  day. 

If  the  intensity  of  shadows  is  modified  and  lightened  by 
reflected  light  as  they  approach  the  ground  or  any  plane  ap- 
proximately parallel  thereto,  by  the  same  token  so  are  the  values 
of  planes.  For  the  sake  of  simplification  at  that  moment  I  did 
not  refer  to  any  gradation  of  the  washes  on  the  planes  of  our 
building.    But  they  will  have  been  graded  washes. 

Some  men  like  to  grade  their  planes  from  the  bottom  up- 
wards (a  convention  I  may  say  which  really  means  the  as- 
sumption of  a  darker  local  color  on  the  lower  portion  of  a  build- 
ing such  as  the  greater  accumulation  of  dirt  near  the  ground) 
and  others  down.  By  the  first  method,  the  contrasts  at  the  cornice 
line  are  very  brilliant — dark  shadows  on  a  light  surface.  Some 
men  grade  their  planes  downward  so  as  to  simulate  the  re- 
flected light  from  the  ground,  strengthen  their  cornice  shadows 
proportionately  to  get  brilliancy  against  the  darker  upper  sur- 
face— and  handle  the  gradation  of  their  reflected  shadows  and 
their  piquage  so  as  to  restore  apparent  balance  and  stability  to 
the  structure.  For  if  a  drawing  of  a  building  is  lightest  next 
to  the  ground  the  building  seems  to  have  no  satisfactory  base 
and  to  float.  But  we  are  anticipating,  as  the  old-fashioned 
novelists  used  to  say.     {^tt Piquage,  pages  78  and  79.) 

Either  of  these  methods  is  sound.  One  is  applicable  to  cer- 
tain circumstances  and  the  other  to  other  cases.  I  think,  how- 
ever, that  if  our  planes  are  darkest  near  the  ground,  we  should, 
to  establish  a  balance  in  the  drawing,  reverse  the  gradation  in 


RENDERING 


63 


such  planes  as  the  wall  back  of  our  colonnade  in  antis  in  our 
central  motif.  The  same  principle  of  reversal  for  balance  ap- 
plies to  the  other  system.  If  our  main  planes  are  lightest  near 
the  ground,  a  plane  such  as  just  referred  to  should  be  darkest 
near  the  ground.  For  when  there  is  such  a  recessed  plane,  we 
may  assume  that  the  reflected  light  from  the  ground  outside 
is  strong  enough  to  neutralize  the  light  which  is  reflected  from 
the  plane  forming  the  floor  of  the  recess  and  actually  to  cast 


5  EC  TI ON 

DIAGRAM  G 

the  faint  reflected  shadow  of  this  floor  plane  which  fades  out 
as  it  goes  up. 

In  the  diagram  (G)  the  group  of  rays  typified  by  R*  may 
be  assumed  to  be  neutralized  by  the  more  powerful  rays  of 
reflected  light  thrown  up  from  the  ground,  which  by  a  con- 
vention we  regard  as  a  white  reflecting  surface  for  our  purpose 
instead  of  a  dark  absorbent  tone. 

Reflected  or  "Back"  Shadows.  Reflected  shadows  (which 
are  colloquially  termed  ''back  shadows")  are  easily  understood 
once  the  principle  of  reflected  lights  is  mastered.    If  a  strong 


64    ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 


reflected  light  is  being  thrown  back  upon  a  plane  in  shade  or 
in  shadow  and  there  should  be  a  projection  in  that  plane,  there 
will  be  a  back-shadow  cast  by  that  projection,  sometimes  fainter 
than  a  direct  shadow,  sometimes  quite  as  sharp,  depending 
upon  the  relative  distance  of  the  shadow-casting  object  and  the 
light-reflecting  plane.     (See  Diagram  H.) 

By  a  convention,  into  the  scientific  basis  of  which  it  is  un- 
necessary to  enter  here,  reflected  shadows  or  back  shadows, 


SECTION  ELEVATION 

DIAGRAM   H 

are  assumed  to  be  cast  from  some  source  of  light  below  and  to 
the  right,  direct  shadows  being  cast  from  above  and  the  left. 
Back  shadows  if  large  enough  to  show  their  gradation  in  a 
drawing  are  darkest  nearest  the  object  which  throws  them  and 
fade  out  as  they  go  up  and  to  the  left. 

Reflected  shadows  are  of  course  constructed  in  the  same 
manner  as  direct  shadows. 

It  seems  superfluous  to  enlarge  further  on  the  subject  of 
back  shadows.  The  student  is  advised  to  examine  the  illustra- 
tions in  this  book  and  above  all  in  D'Espouy's  Fragments 
d'Architecture.     I  believe  the  principles  of  plane  values  and 


RENDERING  65 

their  gradation,  of  the  illumination  of  surfaces  and  of  reflected 
lights  and  shadows  have  been  stated  with  sufficient  fullness  to 
make  their  application  easy.  It  would  be  tedious  to  attempt 
to  cover  every  case.  In  discussing  the  rendering  of  detail  draw- 
ings we  will  develop  some  points  unnecessary  to  touch  upon  now. 

Shades  and  Shadows.  Our  plane  values  established  we 
are  ready  to  put  in  our  shadows.  And  the  first  thing  we  en- 
counter is  the  problem  of  plane  values  again — the  minor  planes 
this  time. 

Godef roy,  who  was  rated  as  a  very  skilful  renderer  in  Paris 
a  good  many  years  ago,  used  to  start  a  drawing  by  laying  the 
cornice  shadow  first,  on  pure  white  paper;  not  the  whole  cornice 
shadow  but  that  portion  of  the  shadow  which  falls  on  the  frieze 
(our  "S"),  and  this  he  made  almost  black  for  a  large  drawing. 
I  assume  his  theory  was  that  he  had  then  established  two  values 
at  the  extreme  ends  of  the  scale — the  white  paper  and  this  in- 
tensely black  and  brilliant  portion  of  the  shadow  of  the  main 
cornice — and  he  worked  his  half  tones  and  quarter  and  eighth 
tones  in  between  these  extremes.  This  is  not  meat  for  babes. 
I  advise  that  the  beginner  lay  the  sky  or  background  wash  first 
and  follow  that  with  washes  which  establish  the  local  color  of 
the  several  planes  and  their  relations  to  each  other  and  to  the 
sky  tone.  This  gets  rid  of  vast  areas  of  white  paper  and  the 
judgment  of  values  becomes  much  easier  as  well  as  surer.  It 
used  to  be  my  practise  to  lay  the  principal  cornice  shadow  next 
after  the  sky  wash,  on  the  Godef  roy  theory  that  I  was  establish- 
ing the  principal  dark,  and  I  usually  rendered  this  main  cornice 
shadow  complete  before  doing  anything  else.  Accumulated  ex- 
perience, however,  leads  me  to  believe  that  this  is  not  so  success- 


66  ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

ful  as  to  establish  all  the  big  tones  first,  all  the  plane  values,  and 
all  the  local  color. 

Cornice  Shadows.  After  these  are  estabished  it  is  now 
my  practise  to  pass  a  tone  over  the  whole  shadow  of  the  main 
cornice  (whether  the  main  cornice  is  in  one  plane  or  is  broken 
by  pavilions  or  by  a  central  motif)  and  over  the  shadows  cast 
by  projecting  portions,  and  then  work  up  the  full  value  of  the 
main  cornice  on  the  principal  plane  so  as  to  establish  a  measure 
of  value  to  work  to.  This  first  wash  defines  the  general  model- 
ing enough  for  one  to  be  able  to  look  ahead  and  visualize  the 
future  steps.  Let  us  pass  it.  It  will  go  over  everything  which 
is  in  shadow.  If  modillions  occur  in  the  cornice  which  have 
sufficient  projection  to  catch  the  light,  of  course  we  leave  out  the 
modillions.  It  is  best  to  start  at  the  right-hand  end  of  the  build- 
ing because,  where  the  central  motif  projects  and  casts  a  shadow, 
this  shadow  wash  you  are  running  has  to  be  carried  down  over 
this  shadow  area  without  a  stop  or  a  break  and  be  graded  as  it 
goes.  It  does  not  have  to  be  graded  on  the  running  stretch  of 
cornice — this  gradation  is  built  up  as  will  be  presently  described. 
Therefore  carry  it  flat  until  it  meets  the  sharp  diagonal  edge 
of  the  shadow  cast  by  the  central  motif  and  along  and  down  this 
diagonal  for  a  bit;  then  take  water  and  grade  it  out  somewhat 
toward  the  central  motif  and  down  the  edge  of  the  diagonal, 
grading  as  you  go  left  and  down.  For  you  have  two  things  to 
accomplish — gradation  to  the  left,  to  express  the  reflected  light 
from  our  old  friend.  Projection  P,  and  a  gradation  of  the  whole 
shadow  down,  to  express  the  reflected  light  from  the  ground. 
(See  Plate  No.  4.)  As  soon  as  the  edge  of  the  shadow  where  it 
touches  the  central  motif  is  dry,  carry  the  rest  of  the  main  cor- 
nice shadow  wash  along  to  the  left-hand  end  of  the  drawing. 


RENDERING  67 

Work  wet  but  not  too  wet.  Follow  the  lines  absolutely.  Do  not 
let  the  value  of  the  wash  vary  by  taking  too  much  up  in  your 
brush  when  you  recharge  it;  if  you  do  your  shadow  will  look 
like  a  piece  of  watered  silk  ribbon  and  will  seem  to  ripple  or 
undulate. 

Then  go  back  to  the  central  motif  and  count  the  planes  in 
the  cornice  shadow. 

Suppose  it  is  as  shown  in  Diagram  I.  We  have  ten  planes 
of  which  five  are  vertical  and  five  are  so  inclined  that  they  will 
receive  reflected  light.  (At  i-i6th  scale  unless  the  size  of  parts 
is  tremendous  we  are  not  concerned  with  the  actual  profile  of 
planes  2,  4,  6,  8  and  10.    They  are  merely  inclined  planes.) 

Plane  2  will  be  lightest,  4  next  lightest,  6  next  after  4. 

Plane  i  will  be  darkest  and  3  and  5  successively  lighter. 

Plane  7  and  Plane  9  will  be  brilliant  lights  of  the  same  value 
at  this  small  scale. 

But  as  for  the  shadow  on  7,  to  get  brilliancy  and  sparkle 
and  make  it  stand  forward  of  5,  we  make  it  darker  even  than  i. 
It  is  nearer  than  i  is  to  the  shadow  casting  form,  which  is  the 
lower  edge  of  9,  and  is  therefore  crisper  and  darker  because  a 
lot  of  reflected  light  rays  have  a  chance  to  get  in  between  the 
edge  of  9  and  Plane  i  and  lighten  up  the  shadow. 

So  is  5  nearer  to  the  shadow-casting  form,  vertically.  But 
it  is  also  nearer  to  the  surface  P  from  which  a  strong  reflected 
light  is  thrown  on  its  face.  We  make  8  darker  than  6,  main- 
taining the  relation  between  5  and  7  and  for  the  same  reason. 
We  have  already  passed  a  wash  over  all  these  members  except 
7,  the  lighted  portion  of  the  modillions.  At  a  larger  scale  we 
would  have  at  least  seven  and  usually  many  more  washes  to  run. 
But  we  may  simplify  and  make  3  and  5  alike  and  4  and  6  alike, 


68     ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

the  difference  between  their  projections  beyond  Plane  i  not  be- 
ing very  great. 

The  shadow  is  to  be  graded  from  light  at  the  top  to  dark  at 
the  bottom.  By  applying  what  we  know  of  reflected  lights  and 
of  the  relative  value  of  planes,  it  is  evident  that  6  will  be  the 
lightest  plane  in  the  shadow  and  we  have  decided  to  simplify 
and  make  4  like  it.  We  have  already  passed  one  light  tone  over 
the  whole  shadow.    Let  this  tone  as  it  is  then  stand  for  6  and  4. 

We  pass  two  more  washes  over  5,  the  value  of  which  for 
purposes  of  demonstration  we  assume  now  to  be  definitely  es- 
tablished, and  this  same  depth  of  wash  twice  over  i  and  3.  3 
is  then  established  at  the  same  value  as  5  having  had  the  same 
number  of  washes  passed  over  it.  We  pass  another  wash  over 
I  and  2  and  two  more  washes  over  i,  or  we  may  pass  two  first 
over  I  only  and  the  third  wash  over  i  and  2  which  will  soften 
the  junction  between  them. 

Whenever  we  have  approached  the  projection  of  the  central 
motif  we  have  lightened  these  washes  to  express  reflected  light, 
particularly  Plane  i. 

When  we  have  done  all  this  according  to  the  formula  given 
above  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  the  relative  values  of  all  these 
planes  will  be  correct.  I  am  merely  indicating  a  method  by 
which  you  may  arrive  at  the  values  you  yourself  want — and  the 
depth  of  the  wash  you  have  been  using  has  a  lot  to  do  with  the 
result. 

An  expert  can  establish  these  values  pretty  closely  at  six- 
teenth scale  with  fewer  washes  and  still  attain  transparency. 

For  a  very  brilliant  and  sunny  shadow  I  advise  having  Plane 
I  a  lot  darker  than  the  formula  would  make  it.    I  like  a  sharp 


^      '/)    a    t> 


>      _^    o  _^    ^ 


X       u.  .'x  "g  "I 


.:i-   ±    =    a 


.5  ^  H    i« 


==  ~  s  -^ 

u      -^     y 
■C    —     I-     1- 


y.    C  t  '^  "?. 


■SI     2-    '-" 
"5     X   "ii 


RENDERING  69 

gradation  between  6  and  i  especially  at  a  small  scale  where 
crispness  and  brilliancy  count  for  more  than  subtleties  of  nuance. 

Sometimes  it  is  a  good  idea  if  the  shadow  of  the  modillions 
is  quite  long  to  pass  a  special  wash  over  the  modillion  part  of 
the  shadow  only,  fairly  dark,  and  then  pass  the  successive  washes 
for  Plane  i  over  modillion  shadow  and  all,  which  will  soften 
the  upper  edge  of  the  special  modillion  wash  and  build  the 
modillion  wash  up  to  a  darker  value  than  that  of  Plane  i  by  the 
same  operation.  The  result  will  be,  at  a  little  distance,  that 
Plane  i  will  seem  to  be  graded  in  itself  from  the  lower  edge  of 
the  modillion  shadow  up  to  2,  although  you  have  used  perfectly 
flat  tones. 

I  say  "at  a  little  distance."  And  here  let  me  set  up  a  sign- 
post of  warning.  Don't  work  with  your  nose  to  the  paper  all  the 
time.  Keep  setting  your  board  up  and  comparing  values  and 
seeing  how  well  what  you  are  doing  carries  at  a  distance.  Stand 
away  from  it.  Use  a  diminishing  glass  constantly;  it  flatters  in 
some  respects  but  it  condenses  areas  and  values  and  shows  you 
your  defects  as  well.  And  as  the  drawing  approaches  comple- 
tion, put  it,  not  in  the  best  light  you  can  find  to  test  its  carrying 
power  or  beauty,  but  in  the  worst  light — for  in  an  exhibition  or 
when  hung  for  judgment  in  a  competition  it  may  be  hung  in  a 
poor  light  and  if  you  have  fooled  yourself  your  labor  is  lost. 

This  principle  of  building  up  shadows  is  applicable  to  all 
cases.  Vertical  shadows  of  course  are  graded;  the  gradation  is 
not  built  up  in  flat  washes.  The  shadows  on  planes  further 
back  are  laid  on  the  same  principle  but  lighter  as  they  go  back. 

Drawing  Back  Shadows.  We  have  still  to  put  in  the  back 
shadows  of  the  modillions,  for  which  we  have  prepared  by  draw- 
ing the  edges  of  them  with  a  5H  or  6H  pencil  very  crisply. 


70    ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

This  would  better  be  done  in  two  washes,  the  first  to  go  over 
both  5  and  6  and  the  second  over  5  only. 

The  values  of  these  little  washes  for  back  shadows  and  the 
like  are  almost  in  the  category  of  piquage  and  their  strength 
has  to  be  a  matter  of  experience  or  judgment.  Such  washes  are 
of  course  many  shades  darker  than  the  first  wash  you  laid  in  the 
cornice  shadow  and  which  now  shows  only  on  6  and  4. 

Colonnade  Shadows.  Having  our  whole  main  cornice 
shadow  rendered,  including  the  central  motif  and  side  wings, 
we  may  bring  the  shadows  on  the  wall  back  of  the  columns  into 
value.  Here  we  have  two  options:  To  grade  these  shadows 
from  the  top  down  from  dark  to  light,  or  dark  at  the  bottom  and 
light  at  the  top.  If  you  try  the  latter,  I  think  you  will  be  pleased 
with  the  result,  because,  when  you  come  to  render  the  capitals 
of  the  columns,  with  crisp,  very  brilliant  little  darks,  these 
sharp  accents  will  come  against  a  light  background  and  the 
greater  contrast  will  give  greater  brilliancy.  Also,  the  shaded 
side  of  the  columns  will  grade  from  dark  at  the  top  to  light 
at  the  base  and  the  bases  will  also  be  quite  light,  so  that  you  will 
have  the  light  column  bases  against  the  dark  part  of  the  shadow, 
and  the  shaded  side  of  the  column  will  first  show  darker  against 
lighter  and  then  lighter  against  darker  as  it  comes  down. 

Steps.  If  there  are  steps  leading  up  to  the  central  motif,  as 
there  probably  would  be,  we  may  make  them  recede  as  they  rise, 
in  two  ways,  first,  by  passing  a  tone  over  the  bottom  step,  then 
when  dry  the  same  tone  over  the  first  and  second,  then  over  the 
first,  second  and  third  and  so  on  to  the  top  (a  variant  being  to 
grade  them  in  pairs — one  wash  on  the  first  two,  same  wash  on 
these  and  the  next  two,  the  same  wash  over  six,  etc.) ;  and  second, 
by  grading  each  step  by  itself  and  leaving  a  little  sharp  light 


PLATE    5 


RY    THE    AUTHOR 


To  illustrate  the  gradation  of  tone  of  a  wall  behind  a  colonnade,  of  the 
shadows  cast  by  the  columns  on  this  wall  and  the  contrast  of  the  dark 
accents  of  the  column  capitals  against  the  lightest  part  of  the  wall.  (See 
p.  70.)  Also  back  shadows  put  in  with  a  ruling  pen  and  the  gradation  of 
back  shadows.     (See  pp.  75,  76,  77.) 


RENDERING  71 

along  the  edge  of  each  step  and  for  which  we  draw  light  guide 
lines  in  pencil  to  assure  the  same  width  to  each  light  edge.  These 
we  may  start  dark  at  the  bottom  and  grade  out  lighter,  or,  we 
may  establish  the  value  we  want  the  top  riser  to  be  in  relation  to 
the  bottom  part  of  the  central  motif  and  add  value  as  we  go  down 
the  steps.     And  this  is  the  safest  and  surest  way. 

Windows.  At  any  time  we  felt  we  needed  to  have  their 
value  established  to  help  us  with  our  other  values,  we  will  have 
put  the  washes  in  the  windows.  These  should  be  sharply  graded 
from  the  top  down  if  the  plane  they  occur  in  is  in  full  light  and 
from  the  bottom  up  if  they  are  in  a  plane  which  is  in  shadow. 
One  wash  or  more  is  first  put  over  the  whole  opening  which 
will  represent  the  color  and  value  of  the  frame  and  sash,  and 
subsequent  washes  over  the  glass.  Frequently  the  window 
frame  is  made  darker  than  the  glass  and  is  put  in  with  a  ruling 
pen  and  the  shadow  on  the  frame  still  darker,  almost  black.  This 
is  purely  a  matter  of  taste  and  of  the  kind  of  building  we  are 
rendering — its  whole  character  and  quality  will  help  to  deter- 
mine such  questions  of  treatment. 

Grading  Small  Washes.  There  are  several  ways  of  grad- 
ing all  small  washes  and  such  as  we  usually  get  in  windows.  One 
is  to  use  two  brushes,  one  of  which  is  loaded  with  clear  water 
and  the  other  with  wash;  we  start  with  the  wash  at  the  top  and 
carry  it  down  about  a  third  of  the  height;  take  the  other  brush 
quickly  and,  leaving  a  little  gap  between  the  wash  just  laid, 
run  clear  water  over  the  rest  of  the  window,  then  still  with  the 
clear  water  brush,  close  the  gap  between  the  color  wash  and  the 
clear  water  by  bringing  the  water  up  to  the  color.  If  the  two 
washes  are  of  exactly  the  right  and  equal  degrees  of  wetness  the 
two  will  flow  together  and  make  a  beautiful  gradation.     The 


72    ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

brush  may  be  used  to  guide  the  fusion.  If  one  wash  is  wetter 
than  the  other,  the  lighter  will  fan  up  into  the  darker  or  vice 
versa. 

Another  way  is  to  use  one  brush,  lay  the  upper  third  of  the 
window,  dip  the  tip  of  the  brush  very  carefully  into  clear  water 
and  take  up  exactly  enough  to  make  up  for  what  you  have  just 
laid  on  the  paper,  carry  this  wash  down  another  third  of  the 
Way,  wash  out  the  brush  quickly  and  vigorously  in  your  big 
bowl  or  casserole,  take  clear  water  out  of  another  receptacle  and 
grade  out  with  this  to  the  bottom. 

Another  way  is  to  mix  a  tone  for  the  top  third,  another  for 
the  second  third  about  a  quarter  as  dark.  Lay  the  top  third,  wash 
out  your  brush  thoroughly  and  recharge  it  with  the  second  wash, 
wash  it  out  thoroughly  and  take  clear  water  for  the  last  third. 

Another  way  still  is  to  take  out  two  brushfuls  of  the  Mother 
Wash  and  put  them  in  a  godet,  lay  part  of  the  wash,  add  a 
little  water  in  the  godet,  mixing  it  thoroughly  with  the  Mother 
Wash  in  it,  lay  some  more  wash,  lighten  up  again  and  repeat. 
Then  throw  away  what  is  left  of  your  diluted  little  wash  and  start 
over  again  for  the  next  window;  or  you  may  grade  from  light  to 
dark  by  adding  ink. 

Of  course  these  methods  are  applicable  to  any  wash  and  the 
best  way  is  to  try  them  out  and  see  which  suits  your  own  tempera- 
ment; or  invent  a  new  way  for  yourself.  Only,  it  has  to  be  a 
way  you  can  count  upon  every  time  to  produce  a  certain  result. 
In  free  rendering  one  often  gets  a  spot  of  color,  a  window  per- 
haps, with  the  most  delicious  gradations  and  fusions  of  color 
which  were  the  result  of  working  fast  and  wet  and  the  effect 
was  produced  almost  by  itself — to  save  your  soul  you  couldn't 


RENDERING  73 

rqDeat  just  that  thing  again.  In  formal  rendering  you  have  to 
repeat  the  same  thing  again  and  again  and  know  how  to  do  it. 

General  Warning  as  to  Grading  Washes.  There  is  an- 
other thing  to  guard  against  in  grading  washes — a  tendency  to 
run  the  wash  drier  as  you  lighten  it.  All  parts  of  every  wash 
must  be  evenly  wet.  When  you  have  finished  a  wash,  the  be- 
ginning of  it  should  still  be  perceptibly  wet.  And  let  me  repeat 
again,  no  matter  how  light  the  wash  may  be,  even  if  it  is  pure 
water  (or  seems  to  be)  carry  it  over  the  whole  area  it  should 
cover.    Don't  fade  it  off  with  dry  brush  strokes. 

Column  Shades  and  Shadows.  The  washes  on  the  shaded 
side  of  the  columns  are  done  in  all  sorts  of  ways.  Some  men 
run  the  brush  against  a  T-square  held  away  from  the  paper, 
slap  out  the  color,  take  pure  water  and  run  it  down  the  edges, 
and  the  streaks  blend.  Others  run  it  by  hand  by  a  variation  of 
the  window  wash  method,  carrying  a  narrow  vertical  band  of 
the  color  down  a  way,  taking  up  water  in  the  brush  and  going 
back  to  the  top  and  running  a  second  vertical  band  beside  the 
first  over  the  rest  of  the  shaded  part,  and  repeating  the  opera- 
tion, grading  down  and  sideways  in  sections  as  it  were,  then 
passing  a  general  graded  wash,  darkest  at  the  right  hand  45° 
point,  over  the  whole  column  except  the  high  light. 

Another  but  much  more  laborious  way  is  to  build  up  the 
gradation  around  the  column  (and  lengthwise  also  of  course) 
by  laying  a  series  of  bands  graded  from  top  to  bottom  corre- 
sponding to  the  flutes.  An  unfluted  column  may  of  course  be 
modeled  in  the  same  way.  Diagram  J  shows  how  this  would  be 
done  on  a  large-scale  unfluted  column.     (See  page  74.) 

For  an  unfluted  column  we  draw  two  light  pencil  lines  rep- 
resenting the  width  of  the  high  light.    And  whether  fluted  or 


74    ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 


unfluted  (unless  we  do  it  as  though  flute  by  flute)  the  shade  line 
at  the  right-hand  45°  point  is  drawn  sharply  in  pencil.  Fre- 
quently, in  a  very  light  drawing  the  pencil  line  itself  at  the 
lightest  parts  of  the  shade  will  seem  to  model  the  column  and 


6 

6 

■ 

5 

5 

S 

" 

1      1 

4 

4 

1      '        ' 

i  I   i    i. 

i 

S    1 

2 

2    1 
1         1  ! 

ill      ! 

i  j  !   1    i 

III       1 
]     !       1        ! 

1    >  1 
■    '  <  1 1 

'  i  !  1  ii 

hi 

6 

4 

/ 

/ 

/\ 

\ 

1 
1 

k. 

1\ 

1 

'  7 
1 1/ 

X     > 
/ 

The  washes  are  numbered  in  the  order  in 
<iv/iich  they  are  laid. 

Washes  Nos.  3  and  5  stop  at  the  right  side 
of  Nos.  2  and  4  respectively  to  give  a  sharp 
gradation  and  the  effect  of  reflected  light  in  a 
short  distance,  on  the  right  side. 

The  difference  between  No.  6  and  the  high 
light  on  the  left  should  not  be  great.  (No.  6 
of  course  is  the  same  wash  precisely  as  No.  i. 
The  original  area  of  No.  i  has  been  covered 
six  times  by  the  same  wash  when  the  drawing 
is  finished.) 

A  further  refinement  would  be  to  lighten 
the  original  wash  a  very  little  for  each  of  the 
succeeding  washes  so  that  the  difference  between 
No.  6  and  the  high  light  H.L.  would  be  slighter 
still  and  yet  the  part  in  shade  be  quite  strong. 


PLAN 

DIAGRAM  J 
seem  to  define  an  area  of  a  different  value  from  the  rest  of  it. 
To  make  a  good  job  of  an  unfluted  column  by  the  method  given 
in  the  diagram,  very,  very  light  guide  lines  should  be  drawn. 
But  unless  the  columns  are  colossal,  this  is  not  worth  while  at 


RENDERING  75 

sixteenth  scale.  At  eighth  scale,  yes;  while  at  quarter  scale  if 
the  column  has  any  size  at  all  the  treatment  is  like  that  for  larger 
scale  details.  (See  Plate  No.  8  which  is  at  quarter  inch  but  the 
monumental  scale  made  it  possible  to  treat  it  more  like  a  three- 
quarter  inch  scale  detail.) 

Small  Shadows.  For  the  crisp  little  shadow  under  the 
necking  of  the  column  it  is  a  good  idea  at  sixteenth  scale  to  use 
a  free  hand  pen  dipped  in  dark  wash  (perhaps  the  full  strength 
of  the  Mother  Wash),  draw  the  darkest  part  of  the  shadow  and 
make  sure  it  is  very  wet  without  scratching  the  paper  with  the 
pen;  then  either  with  a  brush  or  the  pen  washed  clean,  run  clear 
water  right  and  left,  close  the  gaps  and  the  dark  ink  will  flow 
into  the  clear  water  alongside.  Column  bases  may  be  rendered 
in  much  the  same  way. 

Use  of  the  Pen.  The  shadows  of  ornament  are  usually 
best  put  in  with  a  free  hand  pen.  Care  must  be  taken  not  to 
scratch  them  into  the  paper  because  the  fibers  then  are  stained 
unevenly  and  the  result  is  messy.  A  dull  pen  is  best — dull,  but 
of  the  proper  degree  of  fineness  or  coarseness  for  the  width  of 
the  shadows.  Also  the  shadows  of  window  architraves  or  of  the 
projecting  planes  in  a  classic  architrave  or  the  like — any  mem- 
ber which  projects  so  little  that  it  is  impracticable  to  use  a  brush 
— may  be  put  in  with  a  ruling  pen,  laid  firmly  on  the  paper  with- 
out biting  the  line  in,  the  pen  being  opened  so  as  to  exactly  cover 
the  width  of  the  shadow;  never  build  up  the  width  of  such 
shadows  by  running  lines  side  by  side — ''painting"  them  with  the 
pen.  This  applies  to  both  horizontal  or  vertical  shadows.  The 
horizontal  ones  are  of  course  the  same  value  throughout.  The 
gradation  of  a  vertical  shadow  done  with  the  ruling  pen  is  very 
simply  accomplished  by  touching  one  end  of  the  line  again,  load- 


76    ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

ing  that  part  of  the  line  with  more  color  than  the  rest.  This 
is  applicable  also  to  the  shadows  or  shades  of  ribs  or  tiles  on 
roofs  which  it  is  usual  to  make  grade  away  from  us  (that  is, 
from  dark  at  the  bottom  to  light  at  the  ridge) .  The  whole  shade 
or  shadow  is  first  ruled  in  very  wet,  and  then,  giving  the  line 
a  second  or  so  to  dry  a  bit,  start  again  at  the  bottom  and  draw 
a  short  line  swiftly,  lifting  the  hand  as  you  go  up  the  old  line. 
If  this  should  prove  inadequate  touch  the  bottom  of  the  line 
again  to  darken  it. 

Usually  the  combined  width  of  the  shaded  side  of  the  rib 
and  its  shadow  is  sufficiently  wide  to  run  with  a  brush.  There- 
fore a  wash  representing  the  value  of  the  shade  may  be  run 
over  both  and  the  shadow  only  done  with  the  ruling  pen  as 
described. 

Back  Shadows  and  Piquage.  One  of  the  last  steps  toward 
the  completion  of  a  drawing  is  putting  in  the  back  shadows 
which  is  really  a  part  of  the  process  of  piquage.  In  order  not  to 
complicate  an  already  sufficiently  intricate  description  I  have 
deferred  to  this  point  the  question  of  reflected  lights  also,  because 
they  are  more  easily  described  in  connection  with  reflected  or 
back  shadows.  As  we  have  seen  in  Diagram  E  planes  such  as  a 
cyma,  which  correspond  to  the  surface  "P"  in  this  diagram,  are 
in  shade.  When  the  cornice  of  which  they  are  a  part  is  in 
shadow,  they  are  illuminated  by  reflected  light  and  by  a  con- 
vention this  reflected  light  is  always  represented  as  being  a  little 
stronger  than  in  Nature  for  the  sake  of  clarity  and  brilliancy. 
In  running  the  wash  which  represents  the  shade  on  such  planes, 
when  we  come  to  the  point  at  which  the  cyma  or  other  member 
enters  the  shadow,  we  immediately  lighten  the  wash,  usually 
grading  it  out  to  clear  water  in  a  very  short  distance;  and  where 


RENDERING  ^^ 

these  members  or  the  shadows  they  cast  are  so  narrow  as  to 
require  that  they  be  put  in  with  a  ruling  pen,  they  should  be 
stopped  at  the  edge  of  the  shadow.  An  examination  of  some 
of  the  illustrations  in  this  book,  notably  Plate  No.  5,  will  tell 
more  at  a  glance  than  a  page  of  description.  The  same  is  true 
of  back  shadows  which  may  be  examined  in  the  same  illustra- 
tions. You  will  observe  that  the  back  shadow  cast  upon  the 
frieze  by  the  upper  member  of  the  architrave  is  graded  strongly 
from  the  outer  edge  of  the  shadow  area  toward  the  left  in  Plate 
No.  5,  for  back  shadows  are  lightened  by  reflected  light  just  as 
direct  shadows  are. 

The  casting  of  back  shadows  can  easily  be  overdone  and 
it  is  frequently  advisable  to  omit  some  altogether.  Observe  the 
sculpture  in  the  pediment  in  Plate  No.  4  where,  although  it  has 
considerable  projection,  there  are  no  back  shadows  cast  up 
against  the  bed  moldings  of  the  cornice.  They  might  easily  have 
looked  grotesque  and  confused  at  a  little  distance  and  would  not 
explain  themselves  to  the  eye.  Very  small  back  shadows,  such 
as  those  in  rustication,  are  best  put  in  with  a  ruling  pen  in  the 
same  way  that  direct  shadows  of  similar  width  are  done. 

Back  Shades.  Besides  back  shadows  there  are  also  "back 
shades."  We  have  seen  in  the  relative  illumination  of  planes  that 
inclined  surfaces  similar  to  Plane  "A"  in  Diagram  A  are  the 
most  brilliantly  illuminated  when  in  direct  light.  By  the  same 
token  they  are  always  represented  as  the  darkest  value  when 
in  a  shadow  area;  so  the  pitch  on  top  of  a  cyma  or  any  project- 
ing member  or  plane  is  always  represented  as  much  darker  than 
the  back  shadow  such  a  projection  would  cast.  As  to  the  rela- 
tive value  of  the  back  shadows  and  back  shades  to  the  shadows 
or  shades  in  which  they  occur,  this  can  only  be  arrived  at  by 


78    ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

experience.  In  a  small  scale  drawing  they  are  usually  quite 
narrow  and  therefore  too  difficult  to  build  up  with  a  series  of 
washes  and  so  have  to  be  done  in  one  operation,  requiring  the 
judgment  which  comes  by  practise. 

Piquage.  A  shadow,  however  transparently  laid,  may  oc- 
casionally seem  to  lack  transparency,  and  strengthening  the  joint 
lines  in  the  shadow  area  invariably  helps  to  make  the  shadow 
transparent  at  once  (see  Plate  No.  9) .  Up  to  this  point  you  have 
passed  nothing  but  general  tones  over  the  various  planes  besides 
the  shadows  and  the  back  shadows.  The  drawing  still  has  a 
rather  papery  look.  It  lacks  the  look  of  stone.  In  Nature  the 
stones  in  a  building  usually  vary  in  color  or  tone  and  in  render- 
ing we  express  these  differences.  This  is  done  by  passing  tones 
of  varying  value  over  individual  stones  leaving  a  narrow  light 
line  along  the  top  and  left-hand  end  of  the  stone.  It  is  ad- 
visable to  piquer  several  stones  in  a  group  here  and  there,  each 
varying  in  tone.  One  of  the  most  difficult  things  to  learn  about 
this  particular  element  of  piquage  is  the  avoidance  of  a  spotty 
appearance.  It  should  be  done  wdth  great  judgment  and  re- 
serve. The  little  washes  on  each  stone  are  put  on  very  wet,  for 
this  is  one  of  the  times  when  you  want  a  wash  to  dry  with  a 
sharp  little  edge.  It  is  often  a  good  idea  to  piquer  a  stone 
which  is  partly  in  and  partly  out  of  a  shadow.  Columns  seem  to 
float  unless  the  lower  parts  of  the  shaft  are  darkened  and  this 
sort  of  piquage  simulates  the  weathering  which  stone  work 
near  the  ground  gets  from  the  spattering  of  rain.  The  same  is 
true  of  the  lower  part  of  the  building  and  it  seems  to  stabilize 
the  whole  structure  if  the  lowest  courses  of  stone  are  darkened, 
grading  up  to  lighter  as  they  rise.  Each  stone  in  a  course  should 
be  pique  by  itself  with  slightly  varying  degrees  of  wetness  so 


RENDERING  79 

that  each  one  will  dry  out  a  little  dififerent  from  its  fellow,  but 
the  general  effect  of  each  lower  course  must  be  darker  than  the 
course  above  it.  Another  element  in  the  process  of  piquage  is  to 
go  carefully  over  the  lines  of  the  drawing  and  examine  them 
with  a  view  to  strengthening  certain  ones  here  and  there  to  as- 
sure firmness,  clarity  and  readability.  The  shadows  of  orna- 
ment or  sculpture  and  the  like  are  not  strictly  to  be  considered 
as  piquage.  The  effect  of  a  considerable  texture  on  any  stone 
may  be  produced  by  dots  with  a  pen.  See  Plate  No.  6  for  the 
rustication  on  the  angles  and  in  the  base  course.  This  drawing 
is  reproduced  at  about  full  size. 

Another  part  of  the  process  is  to  sharpen  up  the  lines  of 
frames  and  sash  in  window  openings  and  the  metal  work  in 
wrought  iron  doors  and  so  on.  These  latter  are  usually  rendered 
entirely  with  the  ruling  or  free  hand  pen,  practically  never  with 
a  brush. 

Brickwork.  There  are  a  number  of  ways  to  render  the  effect 
of  brickwork  appropriate  to  the  scale  of  the  drawing.  At  six- 
teenth scale  we  indicate  rather  than  draw.  At  eighth  scale  things 
begin  to  get  big  enough  to  realize  the  greater  part  of  their  in- 
dividual characters  while  at  quarter  scale  everything  should  be 
drawn — really  drawn.  This  always  should  be  remembered,  and 
the  treatment  of  the  structural  lines,  the  shadow-casting  forms, 
the  shades  and  shadows  and  the  indications  of  materials  kept 
in  scale  with  the  scale  of  the  drawing.  Therefore  at  sixteenth 
scale,  in  monotone,  pass  a  wash  over  your  brickwork  which  when 
dry  will  start  with  that  value  which  the  value  of  the  brick  color 
should  exhibit  in  relation  to  the  stonework,  and  grade  it  out  fast 
to  quite  light.  Then  with  a  ruling  pen  opened  to  the  width  of  a 
brick,  draw  some  crisp  indications  of  brick,  in  scale,  using  ink 


8o  ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

of  varying  degrees  of  darkness,  with  a  very  few  very  dark  for 
accents.  It  takes  care  and  practise  to  do  it  well.  It  should  not 
be  done  all  over  nor  should  it  (except  in  the  case  of  the  few 
accents  referred  to)  be  too  strong  in  contrast  to  the  general 
tone  of  the  wash.  The  beginner  will  find  some  difficulty  at  first 
in  gauging  the  value  of  these  lines,  forgetting,  as  one  does  con- 
stantly at  first,  that  India  Ink  dries  out  many  values  lighter  than 
when  wet. 

Use  of  the  Rubber.  When  we  think  the  drawing  is  all  done 
and  that  we  have  done  everything  to  it  we  can  there  is  still  a 
good  deal  which  may  be  done.  Sometimes  parts  of  it  look  dead 
and  need  life  and  light.  Vv^hat  to  do?  The  draughtsman's  best 
friends  are  his  rubber  and  his  sponge.  We  can't  use  the  sponge 
just  now,  but  we  may  take  a  brand  new  sharp  Ruby  rubber  and 
delicately  lighten  what  needs  lightening.  This  must  be  done 
very  carefully  or  a  frightful  mess  will  result.  Sometimes  a  top 
fillet  or  a  corona  needs  lightening  up  to  give  more  brilliancy, 
sometimes  the  high  lights  on  columns  are  not  brilliant  enough. 
Use  a  visiting  card  with  a  slit  cut  in  it  or  a  metal  erasing  shield 
if  you  don't  trust  your  hand  to  do  it  accurately,  unaided. 

Sometimes  you  find  with  a  fresh  eye  after  a  good  night's 
sleep  that  a  whole  plane  is  too  dark.  Even  this  may  be  remedied 
with  a  Ruby  rubber,  using  the  whole  long  edge  which  must 
touch  the  paper  with  an  even  pressure  everywhere  in  a  kind  of 
light  sweeping  movement  towards  you  from  right  to  left  if  you 
are  right-handed.  Here  if  anywhere  does  disaster  wait  upon 
impatience  or  lack  of  care.  There  is  something  exciting  about 
anything  to  do  with  the  use  of  color  which  is  apt  to  make  men 
hurry  when  there  is  really  lots  of  time.  A  novice  at  tennis  al- 
ways hurries  his  stroke  and  flubs  into  the  net.    It  is  like  that.    It 


RENDERING  8i 

really  takes  more  patience,  more  skill,  more  cool  thought  and 
method  to  touch  a  drawing  up  than  to  make  it  in  the  first  place. 

Darkening  Up.  Sometimes  after  you  have  duly  passed 
washes  of  the  proper  value  over  a  plane  (which  seemed  right 
and  were  right)  and  then  put  in  all  the  darks  of  the  right  value, 
you  find  some  narrow  bands  of  the  original  plane  value  staring 
at  you — fairly  jumping  out  at  you.  This  would  happen  for  in- 
stance in  such  a  place  as  where  windows  occur  between  pilasters, 
the  shadows  of  which  on  the  wall  leave  a  rather  narrow  strip 
of  lighted  wall  between  them  and  the  window-dark.  These  places 
must  of  course  be  toned  down  and  it  is  surprising  how  much 
toning  they  need  to  bring  them  down  to  the  apparent  value  of 
the  rest  of  the  plane.  The  reason  of  course  is  that  a  light  im- 
prisoned between  two  darks  always  seems  more  brilliant  than 
it  really  is — than  the  tone  you  made  it  before  you  put  the 
darks  on. 

Textures.  Under  the  head  of  piquage  may  properly  come 
the  matter  of  textures.  India  Ink  not  being  a  deposing  pigment, 
the  many  suggestions  of  texture  we  may  get  with  heavy  colors 
are  denied  us  and  we  have  to  find  other  ways  to  indicate  it.  For 
example,  trees  may  have  a  texture  put  all  over  them  in  any  of  a 
dozen  ways  with  a  free  hand  pen  and  washes  then  passed  over 
the  whole  tree  modeling  the  foliage  masses,  and  with  the  shadows 
put  on  crisply  or  softly,  as  the  plane  demands,  with  the  brush  or 
cross-hatched  with  a  pen.    (See  Plate  No.  7.) 

Stonework  may  be  stippled  with  pen  or  brush  and  the  stip- 
pling pulled  together  with  a  wash  over  all.  Jules  Guerin  has  for 
years  given  texture  to  an  otherwise  flat  tone  by  drawing  over 
and  through  it  with  a  Conte  crayon  or  a  black  Blaisdell  pencil 
neither  of  which  shines  as  lead  pencil  does.     In  the  drawing 


82    ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

(Plate  No.  8)  the  foliage  of  the  tree  was  completely  drawn  in 
pen  and  ink  leaf  by  leaf  and  then  rendered  in  wash  to  give  the 
modeling  and  the  accents. 

Body  Color.  It  is  sometimes  necessary  to  put  in  very  nar- 
row lights  in  body  color  with  a  ruling  pen.  It  is  not  always 
feasible  nor  worth  while  to  leave  out  the  delicate  tracery  of  a 
bronze  grille  which  in  sunlight  would  perhaps  look  best  if 
drawn  in  light  against  the  dark  of  the  opening,  the  sash  and 
muntins  of  windows  or  the  very  fine  line  of  reflected  light  we 
sometimes  put  on  the  upper  and  left-hand  edges  of  window  panes 
or  frames  in  the  shadow  part  of  a  window.  For  this  we  use 
Chinese  White  which  we  tone  or  not  according  to  circum- 
stances. It  must  be  thoroughly  softened  and  of  a  consistency  like 
very  thick  cream  so  that  it  has  a  lot  of  body.  The  pen  you  use 
it  in  must  be  clean  and  must  be  sharp.  The  Chinese  White 
will  dry  quite  quickly  in  the  pen  which  must  therefore  be 
washed  out  absolutely  clean  at  frequent  intervals  else  the  color 
will  cake  and  refuse  to  flow  freely.  It  must  issue  in  a  clean  crisp 
line  with  neither  a  dry  crumbly  appearance  nor  with  blobs  at 
the  ends.  The  Chinese  White  is  merely  the  opaque  vehicle  for 
the  lighter  value  you  are  putting  over  a  darker  tone.  The  thick 
pigment  hides  the  dark  tone,  the  toning  agent  you  use  in  it, 
whether  India  Ink  or  color,  gives  you  your  value  and  quality. 


PLATR   7  u\    j;i:i.i.()\\  s,   kii'i.i:\,  (  latp  and  faicltex 

To  illustrate  a   iwv   nic'lhod  of  liutting  texture  anil  renderiiii;  the  effect  of  foliage  in  a  formal 
drawing.      Done  with  pen,  crayon  or  i)encil,  and  brush.      (See  p.  8i.) 


Ill 

QUARTER-,  HALF-,  OR  THREE-QUARTER-COLOR 

The  drawing  we  have  just  carried  to  conclusion  is  in  pure 
monotone.  It  is  true  that  we  used  pigments  to  tone  the  ink — but 
not  enough  to  count  as  color.  We  attained  our  effects  by  the 
sheer  relation  of  value  to  value. 

We  have  now  to  discuss  the  use  of  color  in  another  way,  in 
which  the  general  effect  of  monotone  is  preserved  but  in  which  as 
we  examine  the  various  washes  we  plainly  see  that  pigments  have 
been  used.  It  is  an  intermediate  step  between  pure  India  Ink 
rendering  and  rendering  in  full  color  and  is  very  flexible — 
for  we  may  use  almost  no  color  and  yet  give  great  quality  to 
our  drawing  which  remains  a  monotone,  or  use  so  much  color 
that  we  have  to  all  intents  and  purposes  a  drawing  in  full  color. 
India  Ink  is  still  our  basic  tone.  Whistler  called  black  "the 
great  harmonizer."  But  however  questionable  its  use  in  paint- 
ing in  oil  has  since  been  proved  to  be,  it  is  indubitably  the  right 
base  for  rendering  architectural  subjects,  formally,  in  water 
color. 

Warm  and  Cold  Backgrounds.  It  used  to  be  a  formula  in 
the  ateliers  in  Paris  that  a  warm  building  demanded  a  cool 
background  and  a  cool  building  a  warm  one.  But  this  does 
not  state  the  whole  case — we  may  also  make  the  whole  drawing 
warm  or  make  it  all  cold.  The  question  is  purely  one  of  prefer- 
ence (I  purposely  avoid  the  word  "taste"  in  this  connection). 

There  is  one  touchstone  of  success — harmony,  the  preservation 

83 


84    ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

of  the  key.  If  the  building  is  singing  in  A  minor  and  the  back- 
ground in  C  minor  we  have  a  discord.  I  have  found  it  possible 
to  get  a  very  considerable  efifect  of  color  with  very  few  pigments 
and  keep  the  drawing  in  key.  These  pigments  are  Carmine, 
Vermilion,  Raw  Sienna,  Burnt  Sienna,  Verte  Emeraude,  Cobalt 
Blue  and  French  Blue.  These  happen  to  be  the  ones  I  fell  into 
the  way  of  using  years  ago  and,  liking  what  they  gave  me  and 
reaching  a  point  where  I  know  exactly  what  I  can  do  with  them, 
I  continue  to  use  them.  It  is  therefore  with  this  palette  of  my 
own  that  I  am  about  to  deal.  As  you  will  see,  Messrs.  Cret  and 
Ripley  use  quite  different  combinations  and  different  pigments, 
(See  Properties  of  Pigments,  pages  1 29-131.) 

I  find  that  by  varying  the  proportions  of  the  cool  and  warm 
pigments  and  by  changing  the  speed  at  which  the  wash  is  run, 
I  can  get  a  surprising  variety  of  tone.  More  than  that,  by  op- 
posing cold  and  warm  tones  to  each  other  a  soft  brilliancy  in  a 
light  key  may  be  attained.  It  is  unnecessary  to  visit  the  coal 
scuttle  for  tones  to  express  brilliant  light.  In  Greece,  on  the 
Acropolis  of  Athens,  in  the  Propyleia,  the  Parthenon,  the 
Erechtheion,  the  shadows  are  struck  so  full  of  reflected  lights 
as  to  seem  to  cease  to  be  shadow  and  to  become  merely  another 
kind  of  light.  And  it  would  be  a  brutal  lie  to  model  one  of  those 
buildings  with  strong  heavy  dark  shadows.  There  was  an  old 
party  in  Rome  years  ago  of  whom  some  of  my  contemporaries 
took  lessons  in  water  color.  He  had  one  recipe  for  shadows — 
French  Blue  and  Vandyke  Brown — perfectly  opaque,  with  a 
specious  kind  of  richness  about  it.  A  fallen  capital  with  some 
Yellow  Ochre  run  over  it,  leaving  a  few  whites  for  recent  frac- 
tures, the  soup  aforementioned  for  the  shadows,  and  Rome 
breathed  again — or  turned  over  in  her  grave.    This  recipe  was 


ipii  1 1 1 1 1  iTTmmTnTmTrrrti niiiT 


PLATE    8 


15Y    THE    AUTHOR 


To  illustrate  the  fact  that  monumental  scale  makes  it 
possible  to  treat  a  quarter-inch  scale  detail  more  like 
one  at  three-quarter  scale.  (See  p.  95.)  Also  the  ren- 
deriny;  of  foliage  in  a  formal  drawing  (see  p.  82),  and  the 
reifected  lijht  on  the  edges  of  window  sash.     (See  p.  99.) 


QUARTER-,  HALF-,  OR  THREE-QUARTER-COLOR  85 

carried  to  the  Athenian  Acropolis  and  there  used  and  I  only 
wonder  that  the  grey-eyed  Athene  didn't  throw  the  perpetrators 
of  the  sacrilege  off  the  Rock. 

Quality.  Instead  of  a  mere  difference  in  the  value  of  tones 
we  are  also  to  create  a  difference  in  their  quality.  Distant  planes 
will  not  be  merely  lighter  (or  darker  according  to  the  conven- 
tion we  adopt)  but  will  be  colder — indeed  the  mere  difference 
in  quality  (which  means  color,  used  in  this  sense)  will  make  one 
plane  recede  and  the  other  advance.  To  illustrate:  If  we  mix 
two  washes  of  India  Ink  of  as  nearly  the  same  value  as  we  can, 
one  warmed  with,  say,  Burnt  Sienna  and  the  other  cooled  with 
French  Blue,  and  lay  them  side  by  side  the  cold  tone  will  seem 
further  off  than  the  warm  one. 

But  we  may  play  cold  tones  against  warm  ones  and  still  make 
them  come  forward  by  a  difference  of  value.  Remember  Den- 
man  Ross's  definition  of  value — the  amount  of  light  in  a  tone. 
We  are  not  to  substitute  the  quality  of  light,  which  is  color,  for 
value.    We  are  to  use  them  both,  keeping  our  color  in  value. 

I  have  just  said  that  distant  planes  are  colder  than  those 
near  by.  This  simply  means  that  there  is  more  air  between  us 
and  those  planes,  more  space  if  you  will.  Look  up  at  the  sky 
on  a  bright  day.  The  marvelous  depth  of  color  you  see  is 
merely  the  depth  of  interstellar  space  seen  through  our  thin  film 
of  atmosphere.  So  there  is  more  of  this  atmosphere  between  us 
and  the  distance.  Therefore  if  we  were  to  make  our  elevation 
(Diagram  B,  facing  page  34)  all  over  again  using  color  in  our 
washes,  more,  or  less,  according  to  our  aim,  we  would  take  out 
some  of  the  Mother  Wash,  which  in  this  case  may  be  the  pure 
India  Ink,  reduce  it  with  water  to  the  value  we  want  and  add 
warm  or  cold,  transparent  or  deposing  pigments  to  it.     The  sky 


86     ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

washes  may  be  warmed  up  with  Burnt  Sienna  and  Carmine  fol- 
lowed by  other  washes  with  only  Cobalt  Blue  in  them  floated  or 
stippled  on.  This  gives  a  singular  effect  of  cool  warmth,  if  one 
may  so  express  it,  and  of  atmosphere.  Of  course  the  sky  is  not 
cold.  On  a  warm  summer  day,  looked  at  without  the  prejudice 
which  has  grown  up  in  our  minds  because  we  have  been  taught 
from  our  cradles  that  the  sky  is  "blue,"  it  is  seen  to  be  full  of  little 
particles  of  red  floating  in  it.  And  sometimes  it  is  very  green. 
And  it  changes  all  day  long. 

Over  the  auditorium  wall  we  pass  tones  in  which  we  have 
introduced  more  Cobalt  Blue  than  Burnt  Sienna  and  Carmine 
(or  any  other  of  the  toning  agents  you  prefer  or  elect  to  experi- 
ment with — remember  I  am  speaking  in  terms  of  my  own  palette 
and  general  practise).  For  throughout  the  drawing,  with  very 
few  exceptions,  there  should  be  both  Cold  and  Warm  in  every 
wash,  each  to  preponderate  according  to  its  distance.  The  wings 
of  the  building  will  have  less  Blue  and  the  central  motif  almost 
none.  The  value  of  the  balustrade  and  steps  out  in  front  will 
still  be  very  strong.  But,  as  one  of  the  exceptions  noted  just  now, 
it  should  have  no  Blue  in  the  wash.  You  may  depend  upon  the 
black  of  the  India  Ink  to  hold  down  the  Burnt  Sienna  and 
Carmine  and  keep  them  from  being  too  hot. 

When  we  run  the  main  cornice  shadows  we  encounter  an- 
other, and  a  major,  exception.  The  first  washes,  which  repre- 
sent the  planes  or  moldings  lighted  by  reflected  light,  have  no 
Blue  in  them.  The  other  planes  have  a  preponderance  of  Blue, 
the  darkest  and  bluest  being  our  old  friend  Plane  i  in  Diagram 
I.  For  Planes  3  and  5  in  the  same  diagram  we  need  merely 
lighten  the  wash  we  have  mixed  for  i  with  water.  For  shadows, 
I  use  as  a  rule,  French  Blue  instead  of  Cobalt.    We  must  mark 


QUARTER-,  HALF-,  OR  THREE-QUARTER-COLOR  87 

an  important  difference  at  this  point  between  methods  in  this 
and  in  pure  monotone.  You  are  now  using  a  perceptible  amount 
of  color,  deposing  pigments,  in  your  washes.  Such  washes  when 
very  thin  and  pale,  will  bear  quite  a  bit  of  working  over  without 
stirring  them  up,  causing  the  color  to  "lift"  and  making  the 
drawing  muddy  and  messy,  but  the  planes  in  such  shadows,  for 
example,  as  the  main  cornice  and  that  of  the  principal  motif  on 
the  side  wings  should  be  put  on  and  left  alone,  not  built  up.  Part 
of  their  beauty  will  reside  in  the  way  the  pigments  settle  out. 
It  therefore  requires  experience  and  judgment,  and  failures  con- 
quered by  patience  and  courage  to  judge  accurately  two  elements 
— the  value  of  such  a  shadow  and  its  quality  or  color.  You  are 
working  with  two  very  tricky  materials — India  Ink  which  dries 
out  many  tones  lighter  than  it  looks  when  wet  and  deposing  pig- 
ments like  French  Blue,  for  instance,  which  settles  out  and  dries 
very  much  bluer  than  you'd  guess  by  looking  at  the  wash  in  the 
godet.  Common  sense  would  point  toward  experiment  before 
starting  boldly  in  to  spoil  a  perfectly  good  drawing — and  a  very 
good  way  to  experiment  is  to  draw  a  portion  of  the  building  on 
another  piece  of  paper  and  use  it  for  your  experiments;  or  you 
may  run  some  of  your  wash  on  the  edge  of  a  piece  of  paper 
and  hold  it  against  the  drawing  when  it  is  dry  to  see  whether 
it  is  the  right  value  and  color. 

Running  Washes  Containing  Much  Color.  The  mechan- 
ical processes  of  running  the  washes  and  grading  them  out  are 
the  same  as  in  working  in  pure  monochrome  except  that  you  must 
be  even  more  careful  to  keep  your  wash  moving  and  not  allow 
it  to  settle  in  streaks  or  spots  because  you  have  a  lot  of  color  in 
it  now,  whose  whole  business  in  life  is  to  settle  and  settle  quickly. 

The  voids  of  windows  and  doorways  may  be  made  warm  or 


88     ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

cold  as  you  please.  You  may  assume  rich  warm  curtains  behind 
the  glass  if  you  like — but  just  remember  that  more  drawings 
are  spoiled  by  the  character,  treatment  and  quality  of  the  window 
washes  (if  there  be  many)  than  in  almost  any  other  way.  Mak- 
ing a  success  of  it  is  the  touchstone. 

Accessory  trees  and  shrubs  may  have  an  approximation  to 
the  color  of  Nature  according  to  the  color  scale  you  have  adopted 
— how  near  to,  or  how  far  from,  full  color. 

Grading  from  Cold  to  Warm  and  Vice  Versa.  When  you 
have  mastered  pure  monotone  and  the  variation  just  described 
(which  we  may  call  quarter-,  half-,  or  three-quarter-color  as  it 
approaches  full),  then  you  will  begin  to  find  ways  of  your  own, 
as  for  instance,  grading  not  merely  from  dark  to  light  but  from 
cold  to  warm — dark  and  warm  to  light  and  cold,  or  dark  and 
cold  to  light  and  warm.  Some  of  the  most  beautiful  effects 
in  rendering  are  obtainable  by  this  dodge.  The  shadows  of  the 
columns  on  the  wall  in  Plate  No.  9  were  graded  from  cold  and 
dark  at  the  top  to  warm  and  light  at  the  bottom  where  a  warm 
reflected  light  was  assumed.  (Shadow  being  partly  describable 
as  the  absence  of  light  arid  therefore  of  warmth,  reflected  light  is 
assumed  to  be  warm  and  gives  us  our  warrant  for  many  beautiful 
effects  of  contrast  of  warm  and  cold  tones.)  The  shadow  in  the 
arch  is  graded  down  from  light  and  warm  at  the  top  where  the 
reflected  light  from  the  intrados  is  supposed  to  strike  into  it, 
warming  and  lightening  it,  to  dark  and  cold  at  the  bottom. 
(Plate  No.  9.)  And  the  back  shadows  are  darker  and  colder 
than  the  shadow  proper.  This  is  done  of  course  by  mixing  two 
washes,  one  cool  and  dark  and  the  other  light  and  warm,  starting 
with  the  cool  and  using  the  lighter,  warmer  wash  to  grade  it  out 
with  at  first  and  then  water  as  necessary. 


PLATE    9  HV    THE    AUTHOR 

To    illustrate    the    omission    of    back    shadows    of    the    sculpture    in     the    ix-cliinent    cornice 

shadow.     (See  p.  77.) 

Also  the  strengthcninij  of  joint  lim-s  in  the  shadows  of  the  columns  to  make  them  more  transparent 

(see  p.  78),  the  gradation  of  the  statue  and  column  shadows  from  cold  and  dark  at  the  top,  to 

warm  and  Hght  at  the  bottom,  and  the  gradation  of  the  shadow  in  the  arch  from  light  and  warm 

at  the  top,  to  dark  anil  cold  at  the  bottom.     (See  p.  88.) 


QUARTER-,  HALF-,  OR  THREE-QUARTER-COLOR  89 

Piquage  in  Color.  When  you  come  to  piquer  your  drawing 
in  quarter-,  or  half-,  or  three-quarter-color  you  have  many  op- 
portunities for  producing  beautiful  general  tones  by  the  juxta- 
position of  small  tones  of  various  qualities,  reddish,  yellowish, 
greenish,  bluish,  on  individual  stones,  always  laid  crisp  and  wet 
and  left  alone  to  dry,  not  messed  with  in  a  panic  because  they  do 
not  seem  quite  right  at  first.  'Never  fool  with  a  wet  wash  unless 
you  know  how.  Picking  out  certain  stones  in  a  warm  shadow 
with  cold  piquage  or  vice  versa  are  all  finishing  touches  which 
it  is  sufficient  to  suggest. 

Unifying  Washes.  Sometimes  when  a  drawing  has  reached 
a  certain  point,  perhaps  is  supposed  to  be  finished,  the  general 
tone  is  too  hot  or  too  cold  or  is  discordant,  has  gotten  out  of  hand 
and  out  of  key.  If  you  haven't  time  to  sponge  it  'way  down 
and  begin  almost  fresh,  it  may  often  be  saved  by  floating  one 
big  wash  or  more  over  the  whole  thing,  sky  and  all.  If  it  is  too 
hot,  mix  a  cool  grey  as  transparent  as  possible.  If  too  cold 
don't  float  Yellow  Ochre  over  it,  but  mix  up  a  wash  of  warm 
transparent  pigments.  In  so  doing  you  are  dealing  probably 
with  tertiary  colors  which  are  apt  to  be  very  muddy  and  ugly 
(by  tertiary  colors  is  meant  the  mixture  of  two  secondary  colors 
like  orange  and  green  which  are  the  product  of  the  mixture  of 
the  primaries  red  and  yellow  and  blue  and  yellow  respectively) 
and  you  must  therefore  study  the  quality  of  the  unsatisfactory 
general  tone  of  the  drawing  with  great  care  and  mix  a  tone  which 
will  modify  it  beautifully,  not  make  it  uglier  still.  In  floating 
these  big  unifying  washes  a  light  hand  is  more  than  ever  re- 
quired. The  board  should  be  tilted  to  about  30°  with  the  hori- 
zontal, the  largest  possible  brush  used,  the  wash  run  as  wet  as 
it  will  stand  and  yet  not  run  down  in  streaks,  and  only  the  film 


90    ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

of  wash  touched  with  the  brush  and  not  the  paper  at  all.  As 
usual  t^Yo  or  three  light  washes  may  be  better  than  one — this 
depends  upon  the  skill  and  experience  of  the  operator.  It  will 
be  found  necessary  as  a  rule  to  sharpen  up  the  shadows  here  and 
there  afterwards  to  restore  some  of  the  crispness  and  brilliancy 
which  have  been  lost. 

The  Glazing  Method.  There  is  another  way  of  making  a 
drawing  which  gives  the  effect  of  full  color  and  is  applicable 
to  perspectives  as  well  as  to  geometrical  elevations.  It  is  par- 
ticularly valuable  in  perspectives  in  cases  where  it  is  essential  to 
preserve  the  facts  of  the  design,  model  it  perfectly  and  subtly 
and  yet  avoid  any  suggestion  of  the  formal,  dry  and  precise. 
A  few  words  will  suffice  to  describe  it.  Assume  the  drawing 
to  be  in  perspective.  Observe  all  the  care  in  the  preliminaries 
and  then  ink  it  in  with  a  very  fine  light  line.  Sponge  it  off.  Then 
establish  the  plane  values  and  put  on  all  the  shadows  in  pure 
India  Ink  monotone,  all  a  little  stronger  than  they  look  as  though 
they  should  be.  Float  a  sky  wash  in  full  color  over  the  whole 
drawing,  background  and  all.  Blot  up  with  a  blotter  the  struc- 
ture itself  but  not  the  background.  Mend  up  edges  as  in  India 
Ink  rendering.  Put  in  such  things  as  human  figures  in  the  fore- 
ground which  should  have  been  carefully  composed  and  inked 
in  with  the  rest  of  the  drawing.  Put  in  a  background  in  full 
color.  Then  float  one  or  two  big  washes  over  the  building  and 
foreground,  which  maybe  warm  and  sunny  at  the  top,  perhaps, 
and  grade  down  into  cool  violets. 

This  is  nothing  more  than  an  adaptation  to  water  color  of  the 
glazing  methods  of  the  old  masters  of  oil  painting,  who  modeled 
their  whole  painting  first  in  monotone,  thus  establishing  all  their 
values,  and  then  with  thin,  transparent  coats  of  varnish  to  which 


QUARTER-,  HALF-,  OR  THREE-QUARTER-COLOR  91 

color  was  added  went  over  it  again  to  give  local  color.  To  this 
was  added  the  further  subtlety  of  glazing  again  with  another 
color — which  resulted  in  those  marvelous  tones  and  effects  of 
light  and  shade  which  the  moderns  have  discarded  for  direct 
painting,  in  an  endeavor  to  produce  the  effect  at  one  stroke  and 
by  practically  one  step  and  one  process.  Remembering  that  in 
water  color  painting  our  shadows  are  put  on  last,  if  we  render 
in  full  color  and  we  want  the  drawing  to  show  plenty  of  texture, 
we  must  use  deposing  pigments;  we  will  lose  subtlety  of  model- 
ing and  a  certain  kind  of  beauty  and  delicacy  if  strong  shadows  of 
deposing  pigments  are  put  on  surfaces  already  covered  with  de- 
posing pigment;  for  almost  immediately  the  color  lifts  and  stirs 
and  the  shadows  seem  to  be  cut  through  the  wash  they  appear  on 
and  look  messy.  The  method  described  avoids  this.  The  India 
Ink  washes  are  put  on  stronger  than  they  look  as  though  they 
should  be  before  the  color  goes  on  because  the  subsequent  washes 
of  color  have  more  effect  upon  the  light  parts  of  the  draiving  than 
upon  the  darker  parts  and  therefore  tend  to  draw  them  nearer 
together  in  value.  So  your  contrasts  of  light  and  shade  must  be 
strong  enough  to  start  with  to  stand  a  considerable  modification. 

This  scheme  has  the  further  advantage  of  being  surprisingly 
rapid  and  yet  giving  an  effect  of  great  finesse.  And  it  is  very 
safe  for  a  drawing  you  are  especially  anxious  to  have  good  and 
have  only  a  limited  time  for.  I  suppose  this  is  partly  because 
the  process  is  resolved  into  two  simple  elements,  each  of  which 
is  separately  carried  out — the  establishment  of  values  m  mono- 
tone first,  and  of  quality  in  color  afterwards. 

Enough  perhaps  has  been  said  of  this  phase  of  the  subject. 
I  have  said  far  more  than  I  intended  to  say  when  I  began.  In- 
deed, had  I  fairly  envisaged  the  difficulty  of  clearly  describing  in 


92    ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

words  processes  which  could  be  demonstrated  physically  in  a 
moment,  I  might  not  have  had  the  hardihood  to  begin.  It  would 
be  so  much  easier  to  seize  a  brush  and  say,  "Here!  Do  it  sol 
You  hold  the  brush  like  this  and  you  pull  the  wash  so,  as  fast 
as  this,  and  you  take  water  this  way."  We  have  still  to  discuss 
the  rendering  of  sections,  of  details  and  of  plans  and  to  say 
something  about  full  color  and  sketching. 


IV 

RENDERING  SECTIONS 

There  are  two  ways  of  rendering  a  section;  one  is  to  regard 
it  as  though  it  were  like  a  plaster  model  sawed  through  and 
set  up  in  bright  sunlight  which  would  cause  the  cut  ceiling  solids 
to  cast  shadows  on  the  wall  surfaces,  part  of  the  wall,  perhaps, 
being  in  full  light;  the  other  is  to  disregard  the  fact  that  one 
wall  and  a  part  of  the  ceiling  has  been  taken  away,  and  to  render 
the  interior  entirely  in  reflected  lights  and  shades  and  shadows. 
This  I  think  is  the  better  way  particularly  if  the  section  is  taken 
through  court  yards  open  to  the  sky  as  well  as  through  roofed-in 
spaces,  for  the  difference  in  lighting  is  then  clearly  expressed. 

Beyond  this  there  is  nothing  to  say  except  that  sections  are 
principally  a  problem  in  reflected  lights,  shades  and  shadows, 
that  the  cut  sections  may  be  left  white  or  slightly  toned  and  that 
the  principles  laid  down  for  elevations  apply  in  all  respects. 


93 


V 

RENDERING  DETAIL  DRAWINGS 

Once  the  secret  is  known,  let  no  one  despair  who  gazes  upon 
those  wonderful  shadows  we  see  in  Corinthian  column  capitals 
in  D'Espouy's  Fragments  d' Architecture  and  thinks  men  who 
can  cast  such  complicated  shadows  on  broken  surfaces  a  race  of 
supermen  one  may  never  hope  to  equal.  In  common  with  hun- 
dreds of  others  I  bowed  the  head  in  awe  and  wonderment — until 
one  day  I  visited  the  Villa  Medici  and  found  that  the  Grand 
Prix  men  are  just  as  human  as  every  one  else  and  do  not  hesi- 
tate to  take  the  easier  way  when  they  can.  And  for  all  those 
marvelous  shadows  in  Corinthian  capitals  and  all  sorts  of  other 
ornamental  and  structural  detail,  they  simply  procure  plaster 
casts,  take  them  out  into  the  sunlight  of  the  Villa  gardens  and 
turning  the  object  in  such  a  way  that  the  sun  casts  shadows  from 
the  left  at  45°  they  quickly  draw  the  outline  of  said  shadows 
with  a  soft  pencil  on  the  plaster  cast.  Having  them  there  it  is 
a  very  easy  mechanical  process  to  transfer  them  to  paper  with 
the  rest  of  the  forms.  Observe,  however,  that  while  they 
avoid  the  painful  task  of  laboriously  constructing  their  shadows, 
they  do  deal  more  with  reality  than  we  do  in  this  country.  In 
what  school  are  students  made  to  measure  and  draw  the  orders 
even  from  plaster  casts?  In  what  school  do  they  learn  gradation 
of  tones  in  shadow  and  the  delicate  secrets  of  reflected  lights 
and  shadows  from  an  actual  object  which  has  three  dimensions? 

None  I    Everything  is  copied  from  other  drawings,  taken  from 

94 


PLATi;     lO 


BY    PAUL    PIIILIPE    CRET 


To  illustrate  among  other  things,  the  light  band  along  the  edge  of  the  great  obelisk  at  the  right, 

and  on  the  left-hand  edge  of  the  main  motif.     (See  p.  97.)     Also  the  piquage  of  stonework  by 

textaro  drawn  with  a  crayon  and  by  the  treatment  of  the  joints. 


RENDERING  DETAIL  DRAWINGS  95 

books  or  is  faked  up.  The  Grand  Prix  man  doesn't  have  to 
spend  his  time  or  risk  his  neck  measuring  the  actual  capital.  A 
cast  for  his  purpose  is  quite  as  good,  brought  to  the  Villa  where 
he  can  measure  and  study  it  comfortably  and  where,  when  he 
is  ready  to  lay  the  washes  on  his  drawing,  he  has  it  constantly  at 
hand  to  refer  to.  In  short,  he  goes  to  Nature  for  his  facts,  not 
to  somebody  else's  version  of  some  one  else's  notion  of  what 
some  one  else  thought  the  object  might  look  like.  In  the  one  case, 
the  American  case,  a  man  is  supposed  to  be  learning  to  draw. 
In  the  French  case  he  is  not  learning  to  draw,  because  most 
Grand  Prix  men  draw  superlatively  well  before  they  win  the 
Grand  Prix — he  is  learning  to  be  an  architect,  training  his  eye 
to  recognize  values  of  light  and  shade  on  an  actual  object;  and  all 
architecture  is  merely  a  matter  of  light  and  shade  and  all 
draughtsmanship  is  merely  a  means  by  which  a  man  may  learn 
how  to  distribute  his  light  and  shade  in  beautiful  ways. 

The  best  way  for  a  man  to  learn  to  render  details  well  is  to 
study  Nature  for  his  facts,  and  to  study  the  plates  in  D'Espouy's 
Fragments  d' Architecture  for  his  methods  if  he  cannot  come  by 
some  actual  drawings  by  masters  of  the  craft  (as  it  is  so  diffi- 
cult to  do  in  this  country).  Direct  photographs  from  the  draw- 
ings are  the  next  best  thing  to  the  drawings  themselves. 

Rendering  at  large  scale  varies  from  that  at  small  scale,  not 
in  principle,  but  in  details.  The  small  scale  imposes  simplifi- 
cation. But  all  that  has  been  "hereinbefore  specified"  applies 
to  larger  scale  drawings.  The  suppression  of  line  as  line  and  its 
use  merely  as  a  guide  for  the  edge  of  a  wash,  plane  values,  re- 
flected lights  and  shadows,  all  these  apply.  But  if  we  study 
Nature  we  will  find  things  to  give  expression  to  and  in  the  draw- 
ings in  D'Espouy  ways  to  express  them. 


96    ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

I  will  not  describe  the  making  of  a  detail  rendering  because 
I  should  have  to  repeat  much  already  said.  Instead  I  shall  point 
out  some  of  the  things  you  will  or  should  observe  in  D'Espouy 
or  in  the  illustrations  in  this  book,  and  indicate  how  they  are 
done. 

One  of  the  first  things  to  know  is  that  most  of  the  detail  draw- 
ings the  Grand  Prix  men  make  are  at  quarter  full  size  and  that 
they  gain  considerably  in  effect  of  course  in  reduction  for  repro- 
duction. They  are  nevertheless  exquisitely  done  as  a  rule.  But 
the  execution  of  certain  effects  is  much  easier  at  large  scale.  At 
a  large  scale  where  the  washes  cover  considerable  area  and  where 
therefore  defects  have  just  so  much  more  chance  of  occurring, 
it  is  all  the  more  essential  to  success  to  build  up  the  values  slowly, 
pale  wash  by  wash,  and  sponge  of¥  frequently — and  this  process 
of  building  up  and  sponging  off  is  frequently  carried  on  right 
through  to  the  very  end  and  a  drawing  with  every  value  estab- 
lished and  which  looks  to  most  eyes  finished,  is  calmly  sponged 
down  and  built  up  to  value  again  and  again  until  there  is  enough 
ink  in  the  paper  to  require  only  one  last  fresh  wash  to  give  firm- 
ness and  crispness.  This  is  of  course  making  drawings  for  the 
sake  of  making  them — and  only  those  who  like  to  make  draw- 
ings, as  painters  like  to  paint  pictures,  for  the  love  and  the  fun 
of  it,  need  apply. 

The  magical,  unbelievable  quality  of  such  drawings  can  only 
be  gotten  by  such  methods.  Needless  to  say  they  are  in  pure 
India  Ink  or  practically  so. 

The  detail  shown  in  Plate  No.  1 1  is  at  four  feet  to  the  inch 
but  the  gradation  of  the  uppermost  cyma  was  done  as  though  the 
scale  were  much  larger;  a  number  of  very  light  pencil  lines 
were  ruled  parallel  to  the  run  of  the  molding  and  a  series  of 


PLATE    I  I 


BY    THE    AUTHOR 


To  illustrate  the  gradation  of  the  shade  on  the  cyma,  and  the  shadow  on  the  curved  surface  in 

the  rake  of  the  pediment,  by  a  series  of  washes  laitl  in  bands.      (See  p.  96.)     Also  to  show  the 

narrow  band  of  light  left  along  the  edge  of  the  cornice  shadow.     (See  p.  97.) 


RENDERING  DETAIL  DRAWINGS  97 

pale  flat  tones  passed  one  after  the  other,  covering  first  one  band, 
then  that  one  and  the  next  above,  then  three,  then  four  and  so 
on  until  the  darkest  part  has  perhaps  half  a  dozen  washes  and  the 
lightest  perhaps  but  one,  and  at  a  little  distance  the  eye  blends 
these  bands  (which  are  seen  upon  close  inspection  to  be  of  dis- 
tinctly different  values)  into  one  band  with  an  even  gradation. 
The  same  method  was  used  as  on  the  curved  surface  back  of  the 
cheneau  on  the  rake  of  the  pediment  in  the  same  drawing. 

Light  Edges.  If  you  will  look  closely  you  will  observe 
along  the  edge  of  a  plane  where  it  is  relieved  against  another 
plane  in  Plate  14  and  the  edge  of  the  obelisk  in  Plate  No.  10,  a 
light  streak.  This,  so  far  as  my  observation  goes,  has  only  an  oc- 
casional existence  in  Nature  due  to  the  weathering  of  stone  under 
certain  conditions,  but  is  useful  as  a  convention  or  dodge  to 
give  additional  life  and  brilliancy  to  a  drawing.  It  is  of  course 
prepared  for  in  advance  and  the  tone  of  this  light  edge  is  prob- 
ably the  original  plane  value  established  and  which  is  left  out 
in  future  washes  in  the  process  of  piquage.  (In  fact,  the  whole 
process  of  rendering  at  large  scale  is  little  else  but  piquage.) 
The  same  is  true  of  the  narrow  band  of  light  you  may  frequently 
see  on  a  frieze  at  the  edge  of  the  cornice  shadow  for  instance. 
The  cornice  shadow  is  built  up  to  value  and  then  a  wash  is  put 
on  the  lighted  part  of  the  frieze,  very  pale,  leaving  this  narrow 
streak  of  the  original  tone  of  the  frieze  along  the  edge  of  the 
shadow.  (This  was  done  in  Plate  11  which  has  lost  something 
in  reproduction.)  The  result  is  an  immensely  added  brilliancy 
and  softness.  It  would  be  perfectly  possible  to  bring  the  frieze 
up  to  full  value  and  then  put  the  cornice  shadow  over  it — but 
it  would  not  be  nearly  so  subtle  nor  nearly  so  brilliant  and  beau 
tiful.    Practically  all  the  surfaces  should  be  treated  in  this  way; 


98    ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

first  a  general  tone  for  the  whole  general  plane,  then  the  shadows 
built  up,  then  the  final  plane  value,  leaving  a  narrow  light  along 
the  edge  of  the  shadow  or  the  shade  as  the  case  may  be.  Planes 
in  shadow  may  be  treated  in  the  same  way  but  the  light  edges 
are  reversed.  But  whether  in  light  or  in  shadow  it  must  not  be 
obvious  and  at  the  proper  focal  distance,  the  distance  at  which 
all  relations  of  forms  and  values  may  best  be  grasped,  it  should 
only  be  felt,  not  seen. 

Penumbra.  Sometimes,  as  in  Plate  No.  12,  there  is  another 
convention  adopted — the  use  of  the  penumbra.  When  the 
shadow  of  one  object  is  cast  upon  another  object  by  two  differ- 
erent  sources  of  light  of  the  same  intensity,  such  as  two  candles 
side  by  side,  one  shadow  overlaps  the  other,  the  combined  value 
of  the  two  making  up  the  mass  of  the  shadow  and  that  one  of  them 
which  overlaps  the  other  making  a  light  shadowy  edge  which  is 
the  penumbra.  So  it  is  assumed  that  the  sun  has  slipped  a  bit 
or  has  a  brother  and  a  penumbra  appears  along  the  edges  of 
the  shadows — usually  only  the  important  ones.  The  penumbra 
wash  is  put  on  last  so  as  to  wash  down  and  soften  the  edge  of  the 
umbra  or  shadow,  and  is  sometimes  very  narrow  indeed,  some- 
times quite  wide.  It  has  the  effect  of  softening  the  edges  of 
very  dark  shadows  at  a  very  large  scale  and  keeping  them  from 
looking  tinny  and  hard. 

In  Mr.  Cret's  drawing  (Plate  No.  13)  of  the  details  of  his 
Valley  Forge  Memorial  Arch  it  will  be  observed  that  he  dis- 
cards the  usual  convention  in  his  reflected  lights  and  makes  his 
shadows  darker  at  their  source  nearest  to  the  shadow-casting 
plane — in  short,  he  assumed  no  plane  below  from  which  re- 
flected light  would  have  been  thrown  back  into  his  shadows.  But 
he  retains  reflected  shadows.    All  of  which  is  entirely  legitimate 


PLATE    12  IJV    G.    KKDOX 

Reproduced  from  D'Espouy's  Fragments  d' Architecture  Antique,  Vol.  I,  PI.  60 

To  illustrate  the  softening  of  the  edge  of  a  shadow  in  a  large-scale  drawing  by  the  use  of  the 
penumbra,  to  avoid  a  hard  and  tinny  appearance.     (See  p.  98.) 


RENDERING  DETAIL  DRAWINGS  99 

and  proper,  I  may  say,  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  need  to  be 
reassured  as  to  the  legitimacy  and  propriety  of  things. 

Textures.  Stippling  and  fine  cross-hatching  with  the  brush 
and  with  the  pen  are  often  resorted  to  to  give  texture  and  qual- 
ity to  surfaces.  Here  again  the  sponging  off  and  building  up 
process  may  be  relied  upon  to  produce  exquisite  subtleties  of  sur- 
face and  of  tone. 

All  sorts  of  things  which  one  cannot  show  at  a  very  small 
scale  are  possible  at  a  larger  scale  and  help  to  model  and  give 
brilliancy,  such  as  the  reflected  light  on  the  edges  of  window  sash 
in  shadow,  as  shown  in  Plate  No.  8,  a  drawing  at  quarter  scale. 
Such  instances  might  be  multiplied  indefinitely  but  enough  has 
been  said  to  direct  the  attention  of  the  student  of  rendering  to 
points  he  might  miss,  and  indicate  how  the  trick  is  turned.  With 
what  he  has  been  told  in  this  volume  he  should  be  able  to  make 
a  pretty  close  analysis  of  the  methods  employed  and  the  steps 
followed  in  any  drawing  he  examines,  and  such  analysis  by  one's 
self  is  of  more  value  than  pages  of  disquisition  and  exposition. 


VI 

RENDERING  PLANS 

It  is,  I  think,  far  more  difficult  to  render  plans  well  than  ele- 
vations. We  have  Nature  to  guide  us  in  the  latter  case  and  we 
may  stand  comfortably  on  the  ground  and  make  our  observa- 
tions. But  the  habit  of  flying  is  not  yet  sufficiently  common  to 
make  the  aspect  of  things  from  the  sky  familiar  to  many  of  us.^ 
So  that  we  have  had  to  depend  upon  our  imaginations.  It  is  a 
perfectly  safe  generalization  to  say  that  the  average  French- 
man much  excels  the  better-than-average  American  in  rendering 
plans.  Over  and  over  again  in  the  exhibitions  at  the  Ecole  des 
Beaux  Arts  one  has  a  chance  to  compare  the  work  of  the  two 
nationalities.  It  may  even  be  compared  to  a  degree  in  the 
Medailles  des  Concours,  although  the  color  and  much  of  the 
handling  is  lost  in  reproduction.  But  there  is  a  certain  tight- 
ness, timidity,  dryness  amounting  almost  to  primness,  in  the 
rendered  plans  and  even  the  elevations  of  the  freest  moving 
American  as  compared  with  the  French.  I  suppose  it  is  the 
same  temperamental  quality  which  makes  the  American  self- 
conscious  in  the  Rougevin  parades — too  much  Pilgrim  Fathers. 
This  tightness  and  dryness  begins  with  the  drawing,  at  the  inking- 
in  stage.  The  precision  and  exactitude,  the  fine  line  proper  to 
elevations  or  sections  are  a  positive  detriment  in  the  entourage 
of  a  plan.     Broad,  light,  soft  lines  crossed  freely  at  intersections 

*6ome  of  the  aerial  photographs,  especially  French  ones,  made  from  a  point  not  very- 
high  from  the  ground  are  most  suggestive  as  to  treatment  of  masses  of  foliage,  of 
shadows  and  the  textures  of  open  spaces. 

loo 


PLATE    13 


UV    PAUL    PIIILIPK    CRET 


Illustrating,  in  this  drawing  of  the  details  of  Mr.  Cret's 
Valley  Forge  Memorial  Arch,  how  the  shadows  are  made 
darker  near  the  shadow-casting  forms,  but  reflected 
lights,  shades  and  shadows  are  retained.      (See  p.  98.) 


RENDERING  PLANS  loi 

with  other  lines  are  in  order.  The  whole  plan  should  look  free 
and  loose. 

Cold  and  Warm  Lines.  It  is  not  a  bad  idea  to  make  a 
difference  in  the  tone  of  the  line  you  use  for  the  interior  of  the 
building  and  for  the  outside  entourage,  cold  inside  and  warm 
outside.  A  warm,  brownish  sort  of  line  for  floor  or  ceiling  in- 
dication does  not  harmonize  very  well  with  the  cold  black  of 
the  poche}  The  same  criticism  may  be  directed  at  warm 
washes  in  demi-poche  (half-black  value)  or  in  pavements  or  the 
graded  washes  one  puts  on  staircases  to  indicate  "up"  and 
"down";  when  contrasted  with  the  pure  black  of  the  walls  they 
look  muddy  and  dirty.  They  should,  I  think,  always  be  cooled 
down  with  Blue. 

Freedom  of  Workmanship.  The  plan  of  the  building  or 
buildings  in  a  rendered  plan  is  usually  far  too  well  drawn,  too 
precise,  too  exact  in  appearance.  To  be  sure,  in  competition 
drawings,  we  have  to  consider  the  dreaded  Professional  Adviser 
with  his  precious  Computors  who  will  nail  you  on  cubage  if  they 
can,  so  one  must  actually  be  accurate.  But  that  is  why  I  used  the 
expression  "in  appearance."  They  should  be  accurate  without 
looking  so.  I  can't  tell  you  how  this  trick  is  turned  except  to 
say  that  you  must  keep  your  workmanship  loose  and  free. 

The  whole  question  is,  as  usual,  one  of  harmony  of  the  en- 
semble. As  in  a  rendered  plan,  the  paths,  roads,  plantations 
of  trees  and  shrubbery  must  be  loose  and  free  and  avoid  the  tight 
and  hard  and  dry,  so  also  must  the  structure  or  structures  have 

'Poche  is  a  French  word  (pronounced  Po-shay)  which  indicates  the  darkened  or 
blacked-in  walls  of  a  plan  but  which  has  also  a  sort  of  special  significance  meaning  all 
the  black  of  a  plan.  As:  "Your /lof//^  is  out  of  scale."  "Your  ^ofA^' is  thin."  "The  poche 
is  fine  but  the  entourage  is  not  well  studied.  And  since  "blacked-in  walls"  is  a  clumsier 
expression  than  "poche"  I  shall  use  the  latter. 


102  ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

a  free  quality.  This  is  of  the  first  importance  in  plans  at  a  small 
scale  where  the  entourage  predominates,  where  it  is  the  general 
scheme  which  counts  and  not  the  precise  arrangement  of  any 
detail.  I  remember  in  this  connection  years  ago  in  Paris,  a  plan 
submitted  by  Tony  Gamier,  son  of  Charles,  in  a  competition  for 
one  of  the  special  prizes  offered  at  the  Ecole,  the  subject  being 
one  in  which  the  treatment  of  the  landscape  was  of  paramount 
importance.  There  was  something  about  Garnier's  poche  which 
differed  from  the  others.  It  had  more  sparkle,  more  strength, 
more  value.  Examined  closely  it  was  a  mess  of  black  blobs  put 
in  apparently  at  top  speed,  carelessly,  freehand.  But  one  of  the 
men  in  the  same  atelier  with  Gamier  told  me  that  he  carefully 
inked  in  that  poche  with  a  quill  pen  tied  to  the  end  of  a  long 
stick  and  that  he  put  the  plan  on  the  ground,  got  up  on  a  stool 
and  made  the  poche  look  right  from  a  distance. 

The  plan  of  a  building  in  a  city,  without  entourage  and  un- 
rendered,  may  of  course  be  very  beautifully  and  precisely  drawn, 
but  the  moment  you  surround  it  with  planting  or  even  with  grass 
plots,  beware! 

Pattern.  Plan  is  after  all,  aside  from  the  virtues  of  arrange- 
ment, of  circulation,  of  convenience,  of  economy  without  mean- 
ness, pretty  nearly  pure  pattern — much  more  so  than  elevation  in 
which  the  third  dimension  destroys  so  many  fond  hopes  of  a 
design  conceived  as  a  pattern  in  only  two.  I  would  not  be  under- 
stood as  claiming  that  a  plan  should  not  have  a  sense  of  the  third 
dimension.  That  is  a  question  of  design.  I  am  assuming  that 
we  are  to  render  a  good  design.  And  when  we  render  a  plan  it 
is  to  bring  out  the  beauty  of  the  pattern  in  it.  Everything  must 
contribute  to  that  beauty — the  weight  of  the  poche,  that  is  to  say 
the  thickness  of  the  walls  of  the  structures,  the  widths  and  color 


RENDERING  PLANS  103 

of  the  circulatory  system  inside  and  outside  the  building,  the 
value  of  the  grass  and  trees  and  shrubs  and  their  shadows  (or  the 
absence  of  shadows) ,  the  big  relations  of  the  big  lights  and  darks, 
the  emphasis  to  place  on  this  or  the  other  element  of  the  plan  to 
bring  out  the  shapes  we  want  to  define,  the  suppression  or  sub- 
ordination of  unpleasant  shapes. 

Treatment  in  Relation  to  Scale.  As  in  elevations,  the  scale 
of  a  drawing  should  establish  the  character  of  the  rendering  of  a 
plan.  We  must  adopt  a  breadth  of  treatment  in  direct  relation  to 
the  scale.  The  smaller  it  is  the  more  we  must  avoid  meticulous 
detail.  Trees  in  which  at  a  large  scale  we  would  permit  our- 
selves a  certain  amount  of  modeling  become  merely  dark  masses 
relieved  from  complete  flatness  only  by  the  settling  out  of  the 
pigments. 

These  general  consideratrons  being  disposed  of  we  may  take 
up  processes  more  in  detail. 

Penciling  In.  The  penciling  process  is  precisely  similar 
to  that  for  an  elevation. 

Inking  in  a  Plan.  In  inking  in,  if  we  decide  to  make  our 
light  lines  inside  the  plan  cold  and  our  entourage  lines  warm  we 
will  have  three  inks  to  deal  with,  because  the  poche  must  be 
outlined  in  pure  black  ink.  For  this  Higgins's  Waterproof  Ink 
is  satisfactory.  In  doing  so  you  have  before  you  two  alternatives 
— to  use  a  very  fine  line,  almost  a  hair  line,  which  you  cross 
crisply  but  not  exaggeratedly  at  all  intersections,  and  a  much 
coarser  line  crossed  in  the  same  way.  In  any  small  scale  plan, 
sixty-fourth  and  thirty-second  scale,  and  sometimes  even  at  six- 
teenth scale,  the  fine  line  is  the  better  except  that  it  makes  for 
great  precision  and  exactitude  of  appearance.  At  window  and 
door  openings  I  like  to  see  the  lines  of  the  jambs  prolonged  a  bit 


I04  ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

inside  and  outside  of  the  wall  and  the  lines  of  the  inner  and 
outer  wall  faces  almost  stopped  against  them;  that  is,  with  very 
little  run-over.  The  same  with  openings  in  interior  walls.  The 
plan  reads  more  clearly.  The  lines  representing  the  frames 
and  sash  of  windows  should  be  inked  in  with  a  very  fine  line  with 
light  ink,  so  that  the  window  opening  will  not  be  clogged  up 
with  heavy  dark  lines.  Here  is  one  of  those  many  chances  we 
have  in  draughtsmanship  for  the  exercise  of  common  sense  in 
indication — the  window  being  for  the  purpose  of  lighting  the 
interior  it  ought  to  look  as  though  the  light  could  go  through 
easily. 

Poche.  Although  outlining  the  poche  preliminary  to  black- 
ing in  the  walls  is  not  necessarily  the  next  process,  it  may  be  if 
you  like.  This  means  running  a  broad  black  line  inside  of  the 
real  outline.  It  may  be  omitted  by  any  one  with  the  courage 
to  pocher  the  walls  without  it,  but  I  believe  it  saves  time  and 
profanity.  This  also  may  be  done  with  Higgins's  ink,  but  the 
line  must  not  be  so  wide  as  to  show  as  a  broad  dull  edge  around 
every  piece  of  poche — for  plain  Higgins's  ink  dries  dull  and  our 
poche  is  to  be  a  brilliant,  glossy  black  which  we  obtain  by  put- 
ting Higgins's  ink  in  our  slate  grinding-saucer  and  grinding 
India  Ink  in  it  until  it  is  so  thick  that  when  we  blow  it  gently 
back  from  the  edge  of  the  saucer  it  flows  back  quite  slowly;  until 
it  does  this  it  is  not  thick  enough.  I  have  found  good  thick  India 
Ink  poche  mixed  like  this  entirely  satisfactory.  Some  very 
particular  persons  put  sugar  in  it  to  make  it  shine  more.  This 
poche  is  put  in  the  walls  with  a  very  fine  brush,  or  with  a  ruling 
pen  provided  the  surface  of  the  paper  is  not  scraped,  which  of 
course  makes  a  dull  furry  place  at  once. 

For  those  who  like  dead  black  poche  Mr.  Goodhue  tells  me 


RENDERING  PLANS  105 

that  his  plan  for  the  Nebraska  State  Capitol  was  poche  with 
Peach  Black  and  Prussian  Blue  over  India  Ink  which  produced 
a  deep  rich  black  perfectly  dead. 

A  good  many  men  defer  the  pocher-ing  of  the  plan  until 
after  it  is  all  rendered,  so  that  the  glossiness  of  the  poche  may  not 
be  injured  by  the  friction  of  T-square  and  triangle.  This 
seeems  to  me  a  grave  mistake.  I  fail  to  see  how  any  value 
whether  of  wash  or  line  can  be  judged  unless  the  masses  of  black 
poche  are  established.  They  constitute  a  value  of  overwhelm- 
ing strength  which  must  be  worked  up  to.  Half  the  disappoint- 
ments we  have  in  rendered  plans  are  due  to  bad  guesses  made 
without  the  poche  to  guide  us.  This  is  true  not  merely  of 
washes  but  of  the  values  of  lines  in  floor  and  ceiling  indications 
and  of  entourage.  It  seems  more  sensible  to  go  over  the  poche 
again  where  it  has  been  dulled  than  to  run  the  risk  of  a  large 
general  failure. 

Floor  and  Ceiling  Indication.  We  may  consider  floor  and 
ceiling  indication  as  the  next  step.  The  first  important  decision 
to  make  is  whether  we  will  leave  the  circulation  white  and  make 
the  rooms  grey  or  vice  versa.  Either  one  it  must  be.  A  plan 
left  with  too  little  grey  in  it  looks  meager,  empty  and  blank;  and 
one  which  is  grey  all  over  errs  at  the  opposite  extreme,  looks  sur- 
charged and  stupid  and  is  very  hard  to  read.  There  are  many 
plans  of  such  a  character  that  they  look  best  with  the  circulation 
grey  and  the  rooms  white. 

Furniture.  It  is  the  custom  of  some  men  to  furnish  the 
rooms  with  indications  of  chairs  and  tables  besides  lines  indicat- 
ing floor  borders.  This  is  difficult  to  do  well  but  if  well  and 
intelligently  done  helps  to  express  the  meaning  of  the  plan;  for 
example,  an  oblong  table  in  the  middle  of  a  room  with  chairs 


io6  ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

around  it  is  the  usual  indication  for  a  Committee  Room  and 
hardly  needs  the  printed  words  to  designate  it  as  such — and  a 
semi-circular  row  of  seats  with  a  long  table  at  the  center  with  a 
couple  of  other  tables  near  by  indicates  to  the  initiated  eye  a 
Grand  Jury  Room.  Court  Rooms  are  furnished  according  to 
the  character  of  the  business  done  in  them;  Courts  of  Appeal, 
naturally,  have  no  jury  therefore  no  jury  box.     And  so  on. 

If  you  elect  to  furnish  the  rooms  it  will  grey  them  to  such 
an  extent  that  the  circulation  must  be  white.  The  furniture  in- 
dication should  be  so  managed  in  relation  to  the  floor  indica- 
tion that  the  spaces  enclosed  by  the  outlines  of  the  furniture 
sparkle  if  they  are  to  be  left  white.  No  space  large  or  small 
will  sparkle  if  enclosed  with  a  thin  line  and  these  furniture 
and  floor  lines  should  be  broad,  soft  looking  lines.  But  some- 
times a  light  wash  is  put  on  every  piece  of  furniture,  sub- 
stituting another  value  for  white. 

The  first  step  toward  "furnishing"  the  plan  (an  expression 
used  to  express  its  dressing-up  with  or  without  tables  and 
chairs)  is  to  run  a  line  very  close  to  the  poche  to  soften  the  sharp 
contrast  between  its  black  and  the  white  of  the  plan.  And  here 
if  anywhere  a  line  is  apt  to  look  wiry.  It  should  be  a  good 
fat  line  even  at  a  very  small  scale  such  as  thirty-two  feet  to  the 
inch.  This  line  is  like  a  base  line  and  should  stop  at  all  door- 
ways and  at  all  windows  opening  to  the  floor.  The  fine  line  you 
have  used  to  outline  your  poche  and  which  I  said  should  be  pro- 
longed somewhat  at  the  jambs  of  openings  will  be  found  very 
useful  to  stop  this  base  line  against.  Another  point  as  to  width 
of  line  is  worth  mentioning — that  the  fewer  lines  you  use  to 
furnish  your  plan  the  wider  and  softer  they  should  be.     Often- 


RENDERING  PLANS  107 

times  there  is  no  time  for  very  elaborate  indications  and  one  wide 
line  has  to  do  duty  for  two  thinner  ones. 

Expression  of  Character.  The  arrangement  of  the  other 
lines  is,  of  course,  a  matter  of  design,  of  pattern,  and  of  judgment 
and  taste.  The  treatment  appropriate  to  a  Public  Library  is  not 
one  suitable  to  a  simple  schoolhouse.  Besides  this  distinction 
in  general  character,  that  between  the  characters  of  different 
rooms  in  the  same  building  is  to  be  made.  While  one  might  be 
prepared  to  find  elaborate  ceiling  or  floor  patterns  in  a  drawing 
room  it  would  be  somewhat  surprising  to  find  them  in  the  kitchen. 
There  are  two  goals,  both  of  which  must  be  reached  for  a  real 
success;  first,  to  make  all  parts  of  your  furnishing  contribute  to 
the  general  pattern  of  your  plan,  make  it  count  as  you  want  it 
to  count  as  a  whole;  second,  to  make  the  details  appropriate  in 
their  own  characters.  If  the  kitchen  needs  a  good  deal  of  grey 
to  avoid  a  light  spot  which  would  disturb  the  ensemble,  get  it 
by  such  simple  and  appropriate  indication  as  a  tiled  floor,  not  by 
a  Ducal  Palace  ceiling.  The  Grand  Prix  projets  should  be 
carefully  studied  for  all  this  sort  of  thing,  especially  those  prior 
to  about  1890  before  the  taste  of  the  school  became  too  much 
vitiated  and  plan  became  pattern  to  such  an  extent  that  it  ceased 
to  be  plan.  Letarouilly's  Edifices  de  Rome  Moderne  is  valuable 
for  reference  for  both  ceiling  and  floor  indications. 

Washes  may  frequently  be  used  to  produce  greys,  sometimes 
so  faint  that  they  can  hardly  be  perceived  close  by.  But  any 
modification  of  pure  white  however  slight  has  its  effect.  One 
may  run  a  wash  in  the  border  around  a  room  or  over  the  field 
and  if  there  is  furniture  it  may  be  left  white  or  rendered  as  you 
please. 

Indoor  and  Outdoor  Scale.    The  relative  scale  of  indoor 


io8  ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

and  outdoor  patterns  such  as  pavements  should  also  be  compared 
and  studied.  Observe  that  the  outdoor  scale  is  always  larger 
and  simpler  in  the  best  examples  and  that  some  of  the  patterns 
which  are  the  richest  in  appearance  are  produced  with  great 
economy  of  means.  The  lines  used  for  entourage  must  be  good 
fat  lines,  soft  and  light  in  the  main,  strengthened  where  accent 
or  stiffening  up  is  necessary.  They  should  be  made  quite  a  bit 
darker  at  the  beginning  than  you  want  them  ultimately  to  be,  to 
allow  for  sponging  down  or  rubbing  down — for  in  rendering  a 
plan,  if  you  pocher  before  putting  in  your  greys  you  will  have 
to  clean  off  with  a  rubber  or  art  gum  instead  of  sponging  off. 

Let  us  mark  here  a  strong  difference  between  plan  and  eleva- 
tion. The  delicacies  and  subtleties  of  handling  one  observes  in 
rendering  an  elevation  are  largely  lost  in  rendering  a  plan.  The 
paper  must  be  kept  clean  of  course  and  it  must  not  be  greasy,  but 
the  same  degree  of  care  need  not  be  taken  to  preserve  every  inch 
of  surface  in  perfect  condition. 

Study  of  Tree  Masses  and  Entourage  Generally.  Before 
the  lines  of  the  entourage  (what  the  French  sometimes  call 
sauce)  are  inked  in,  the  tree  and  shrubbery  plantations  should  be 
studied  carefully  so  that  where  their  masses  overhang  paths  and 
other  elements  of  the  plan  you  may  stop  the  lines  against  them 
instead  of  running  them  through.  Of  course,  all  such  breaks  in 
the  continuity  of  the  formal  lines  must  be  carefully  studied  with 
reference  to  their  effect  upon  the  general  pattern  and  composi- 
tion— and  it  is  to  insure  their  proper  effect  that  I  recommend 
their  careful  study  rather  than  leaving  them  to  improvisation 
later  on  and  consequent  regrets.  The  outlines  of  the  foliage 
should  not  be  inked  in  as  a  rule.  They  are  better  if  left  in  very 
light  pencil.     The  outlines  of  hedges  I  recommend  inking  in 


RENDERING  PLANS  109 

free  hand  with  an  irregular  wiggly  line,  pretty  dark  because 
the  hedges  will  be  rendered  dark. 

Conventional  Indications.  The  beginner  is  recommended 
to  study  carefully  all  the  good  plans  he  can  have  access  to  and 
learn  the  significance  of  the  various  indications.  The  French, 
for  instance,  to  indicate  trees  planted  each  side  of  a  road  use 
dots  for  the  tree  trunks,  usually  with  their  shadows  sharply 
graded,  and  the  dots  connected  either  with  lines  straight  across 
the  road  from  dot  to  dot,  or  with  diagonal  lines  forming  a  criss- 
cross pattern.  They  do  not  show  these  trees  with  all  their  foliage 
in  plan  as  though  looking  down  on  top  of  them,  for  this  would 
destroy  the  width  of  the  road  which  in  pattern  counts  as  a  light 
broad  band  and  which  they  wish  to  preserve.  But  in  all  these 
matters  it  is  what  you  wish  to  bring  out,  how  you  want  the  ele- 
ments of  your  plan  to  count,  which  govern. 

As  I  have  said,  one  of  the  defects  to  guard  against  is  a  meager, 
thin,  flat,  tinny  appearance.  The  usual  cause  of  this  is  the  use 
of  too  few  lines  and  bands  especially  along  the  edges  of  green- 
swards, flower  beds  or  plantations.  Of  course,  you  will  have 
studied  the  black  and  white  and  grey  masses  of  your  plan  thor- 
oughly, perhaps  in  soft  pencil  before  you  begin  to  render,  and 
have  a  very  clear  idea  of  what  you  want  to  do.  You  will  find 
when  you  come  to  translate  these  rough  studies  into  a  serious 
drawing  most  of  the  go  and  spirit  of  the  sketch  have  evaporated. 
When  your  plan  is  studied  and  inked  in  and  ready  to  render  // 
should  look  much  too  rich;  a  plan  simplifies  so  when  rendered 
that  you  need  a  multiplicity  of  lines  and  bands  as  edges  for 
your  masses.  Never,  for  instance,  use  a  single  line,  however 
broad  and  soft  you  make  it,  on  the  edge  of  a  grass  plot.  Whether 
a  curb  would  be  there  in  execution  or  not,  the  line  must  be  dou- 


no  ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

bled  to  avoid  making  the  mass  of  greensward  look  like  tin.  And 
frequently  and  usually  a  band  of  a  darker  or  lighter  color  near 
the  edge  is  needed,  the  band  itself  defined  each  side  with  a  double 
line.  In  execution  you  may  not  want  or  be  able  to  afford  the 
curbs  or  ivy  borders  or  hedges  or  whatever  these  bands  and 
lines  and  borders  are  supposed  to  represent,  but  you  need  them 
in  the  drawing  if  you  want  to  avoid  the  dryness  and  lack  of 
sparkle  and  interest  of  all  too  many  plans. 

Washes.  As  for  the  actual  application  of  the  washes,  the 
same  general  principles  apply  as  in  elevations — your  lightest 
tones  go  on  first.  But  it  is  not  necessary  to  build  up  your  tones 
«o  gradually.  When  rendering  a  plan  in  monotone  (perhaps  in 
a  competition  where  color  is  barred)  a  combination  of  India 
Ink  and  Peach  Black  is  excellent,  both  of  them  toned  of  course; 
the  tones  which  will  ultimately  stand  for  roads,  paths,  pavements 
and  the  like  may  be  built  up  nearly  to  value  with  India  Ink, 
which  has  no  texture,  and  then  a  thin  wash  with  Peach  Black  as 
a  base  floated  over,  which  will  give  texture  and  yet  be  fresh  and 
transparent  in  appearance — for  it  must  be  remembered  that  heavy 
washes  of  Peach  Black  or  Charcoal  Grey  look  carbonaceous 
and  hard  at  the  edges.  Be  sure  to  have  a  good  water-table  line 
around  your  building  or  buildings  to  stop  the  washes  against. 
This  is  not  inconsistent  with  my  former  remarks  about  these  lines 
— I'm  talking  about  plans  now,  not  elevations,  and  if  your  wash 
doesn't  exactly  touch  the  line  everywhere,  or  consume  it,  or  if 
it  runs  over  it  here  and  there,  it  makes  for  the  freer,  looser  effect 
we  look  for  in  a  plan.  But  in  saying  this  I  have  not  issued  a 
license  to  be  sloppy — merely  to  be  carefully  careless. 

Gradation.      Before  we  have  floated  any  wash,  we  have  of 
course  as  previously  remarked,  made  rough  studies  to  determine 


RENDERING  PLANS  in 

the  general  appearance  of  the  plan.  There  are  cases  in  which  it 
should  grade  from  dark  at  the  top  to  light  at  the  bottom,  others 
from  dark  at  the  bottom  to  light  at  the  top  and  others  in  which 
the  light  and  dark  may  be  concentrated  around  some  element  of 
the  plan  we  specially  want  to  emphasize — the  law  of  contrast 
at  work  again.  Decide  what  you  intend  to  do,  be  sure  you're 
right  and  stick  to  your  scheme. 

In  working  up  from  light  to  dark  as  usual,  roads  and  paths 
will  be  the  lightest,  the  grass  next,  certain  bands  darker,  others 
lighter,  than  the  grass,  trees  darker  than  the  grass  and  the  shadows 
darkest  of  all  except  the  hedges  or  the  bands  we  want  for  accent. 
In  all  grass  or  foliage  tones  and  shadows  it  is  advisable  to  use  a 
great  deal  of  deposing  pigment,  when  we  are  working  in  color. 
All  tones  should  be  sharply  graded.  For  example,  besides  the 
general  gradation  of  the  plan,  each  grass  plot  should  be  graded 
in  itself  (by  grass  plot  I  mean  any  separate  grassy  area) .  Bands 
and  hedges  and  borders  should  be  very  sharply  graded  indeed. 
For  trees  and  shrubbery  or  tree  masses  it  is  well  to  tilt  the  board 
sharply  and  diagonally — that  is  to  say  in  such  a  manner  that 
the  wash  will  run  toward  the  lower  right  hand  side  of  the  forms 
and  settle  there.  This  gives,  without  the  labor  of  grading  out, 
and  far  better,  a  light  and  a  dark  side  to  your  trees. 

Trees  in  Perspective.  There  is  another  convention  some- 
times adopted  and  which  is  very  effective  (Plate  No.  15) — draw- 
ing certain  trees  such  as  cedars,  poplars,  or  any  trees  or  groups 
which  are  to  be  emphasized  or  used  as  accents,  in  perspective, 
so  that  the  plan  presents  an  appearance  somewhere  between  a 
plan  and  a  bird's-eye  view.  This  is  particularly  effective  for  the 
planting  in  interior  courts.     It  takes  a  great  deal  of  skill  and  has 


112  ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

to  be  done  with  a  sure  hand.  No  one  who  has  not  drawn  tree 
forms  from  Nature  should  attempt  it. 

Sponging-in  Tree  Forms.  Another  way  to  indicate  tree 
forms  is  to  tear  off  a  piece  from  a  rather  coarse  sponge,  soak  it 
thoroughly,  first  in  water  which  you  squeeze  out,  and  then  in 
your  wash  (of  which  you  need  a  lot  for  this  method)  and  put  on 
the  tree  forms  with  it.  As  you  touch  the  paper  you  squeeze  the 
sponge  a  little  so  that  the  wash  will  run  out  of  it.  The  position 
of  the  sponge  should  be  constantly  changed  to  bring  different 
parts  of  the  torn  filaments  in  contact  with  the  paper  and  so  vary 
the  forms  you  are  producing.  This  is  a  very  good  way  when 
in  a  hurry,  but  it  is  rather  difficult  to  control.  Well  done  it  is 
full  of  delightful  accidental  effects.  For  a  drawing  where  the 
tree  masses  have  been  as  carefully  studied  as  a  landscape  architect 
would  arrange  them,  the  brush  is  the  thing  to  use. 

Shadows.  The  treatment  of  the  shadows  depends  like  every- 
thing else  upon  the  scale  of  the  drawing.  In  a  large  drawing 
we  frequently  load  a  large  brush  and  put  on  the  shadows  with 
the  side  of  it.  This  also,  like  so  many  things,  must  be  skilfully 
done.  As  a  general  thing  the  point  of  the  brush  should  be  used. 
The  trees  and  tree  masses  should  have  little  shadows  put  in  very 
wet  with  a  crisp  firm  touch  and  left  alone,  not  messed  with  and 
made  muddy.  Make  them  dark  enough  to  start  with.  The 
tyro  is  usually  timid  and  makes  these  accents  too  pale;  they 
dry  out  too  light  and  he  goes  on  puddling  and  patting  and  stab- 
bing in  the  blind  hope  that  some  miracle  will  make  them  come 
right. 

Fountains,  flagpoles,  rostral  columns  and  like  elements  very 
often  have  their  shadows  cast,  very  swiftly  graded.  In  a  garden 
it  frequently  explains  the  treatment  if  the  shadows  of  hedges, 


;//. 


s^'//'^  ^ 


s:   I 


RENDERING  PLANS  113 

vases,  clipped  trees,  pedestals,  all  the  shadow-casting  forms,  are 
carefully  drawn  and  rendered.  When  carefully  and  thought- 
fully done,  the  entire  character  of  the  design  is  so  completely  re- 
vealed that  no  section  or  elevation  is  needed  to  explain  it.  Al- 
though I  indicated  above  that  the  shadows  are  the  darkest  value 
except  hedges  and  so  on,  I  was  referring  to  monotone  rendering. 
This  must  not  be  taken  as  an  absolute  rule  nor  as  applying  to 
rendering  in  color.  I  have  seen  a  very  beautiful  rendering  of 
a  garden  in  which  the  shadows  were  yellow  and  gave  a  charm- 
ing effect  of  sunlight. 

Cloud  Shadows.  Sometimes  when  a  part  of  a  plan  is  per- 
force uninteresting  it  may  be  given  quality  and  interest  by  float- 
ing a  big  cloud  shadow  over  it,  breaking  the  shadow  up  so  as  to 
dapple  the  area  with  sunlight  and  shadow. 

Air  Brush.  The  atomizer  or  the  air-brush  may  be  used  to 
great  advantage  in  a  plan.  Streets  which  run  out  of  the  picture 
always  chop  the  plan  up  into  sections  and  the  effect  of  these 
bands,  leading  the  eye  out  right  and  left  and  top  and  bottom,  is 
to  contradict  and  nullify  that  effect  of  concentration  of  interest 
which  is  essential.  Therefore  they  should  be  darkened  toward 
the  edges  of  the  plan,  which  will  correct  the  effect  of  diffusion  of 
interest  and  unite  the  blocks  of  buildings  or  properties  into  one 
mass  instead  of  a  series  of  dislocated  spots.  The  atomizer  is  very 
good  for  this  and  will  do  the  trick  in  a  tenth  the  time  required 
with  the  brush.  It  is  good  too  for  uniting  the  tree  masses  and 
to  put  on  a  unifying  tone  when  the  drawing  has  gotten  spotty  or 
out  of  key.  It  will  give  texture  in  an  India  Ink  drawing.  It  is 
very  useful  but  it  must  not  be  abused. 

Block  Plans.  There  are  a  few  wrinkles  about  block  plans 
which  it  may  be  useful  to  communicate.     The  usual  way  to  pre- 


114  ARCHITECTURAL  REIN  BERING  IN  WASH 

sent  a  block  plan  is  to  make  the  buildings  dark,  but  they  look 
very  well  if  left  white — the  whole  plan  sparkles.  If  they  are  to 
be  dark,  try  inking  in  the  silhouette  of  the  building  with  a  jet 
black  strong  line  and  draw  a  fine  grey  line  all  around  inside,  leav- 
ing a  narrow  band  of  white  between.  The  fine  grey  line  is  the 
guide  line  for  the  dark  wash.  The  band  of  white  between  the 
wash  and  the  black  silhouette  gives  life  and  brilliancy.  When 
the  wash  comes  up  to  the  silhouette  it  looks  dull  and  stodgy  by 
comparison.  A  similar  treatment  may  be  given  blocks  of 
buildings,  the  silhouette  not  necessarily  in  a  black  line,  but  the 
principle  of  a  light  band  between  silhouette  and  wash  being  main- 
tained. 

It  also  gives  scale  and  interest  to  draw  the  reveals  of  all  door 
and  window  openings  (back  to  the  frame  or  glass  line)  and  all 
recessed  portions,  as  well,  of  course,  as  columns  and  pilasters, 
even  at  so  small  a  scale  as  sixty-four  feet  to  the  inch,  instead  of 
drawing  a  mere  straight  line  for  the  silhouette  of  the  building. 
It  not  merely  has  more  interest,  but  when  paths  or  roads  lead  up 
to  entrances,  their  reason  is  made  apparent  and  the  relation  be- 
tween building  and  grounds  is  made  clearer. 

Temperament.  There  are  doubtless  some  who  will  say  that 
in  all  this  matter  of  academic  rendering  no  allowance  is  made 
for  temperament  and  that  in  reducing  things  to  an  orderly  method 
we  become  cold,  lifeless  and  inartistic.  This  I  believe  to  be 
at  once  the  point  of  view  and  the  defense-in-advance  of  the  lazy, 
the  heedless  and  the  impatient,  and  such  people  are  always  look- 
ing for  short  cuts.  They  do  not  write  "Perfection  or  Bust!"  on 
the  inside  of  their  heads  so  they  can  see  it  every  time  they  close 
their  eyes.  There  is  an  awful  lot  of  twaddle  current  about  tem- 
perament.    If  a  man  is  slovenly  in  work  or  person  he  claims  it 


RENDERING  PLANS  115 

as  an  expression  of  his  "temperament."  If  he  is  self-indulgent 
and  won't  buckle  down  to  a  hard  day's  work  he  is  too  tempera- 
mental to  be  confined.  If  he  is  muddle-headed,  or  illogical  and 
unable  to  follow  out  a  course  of  reasoning,  temperament  is  the 
cause.  And  because  temperament  is  rated  as  something  worth 
having,  these  "temperamental"  weaknesses  and  defects  are 
erected  into  virtues.  Temperament  is  worth  having — under 
control.  But  fear  not  I  The  real  thing  will  show  in  your  vrork, 
no  matter  how  systematic  and  orderly  you  are  about  your  meth- 
ods. Order  and  method  are  the  very  handmaidens  of  tempera- 
ment— they  do  her  chores  for  her  and  leave  her  spirit  free. 

Do  you  suppose  Jules  Guerin  and  Maxfield  Parrish  could  do 
the  things  they  do  without  method?  To  the  expert  eye  method 
sticks  out  all  over  their  work — careful  planning  'way  ahead  for 
the  effect  that  charms  us  so — a  vision  seen  and  held  through  a 
dozen  processes  and  stages.  These  men  are  both  magnificent 
craftmen.  They  know  their  job.  One  of  them  I  know  is  an 
orderly  workman  and  I'd  wager  anything  you  like  the  other  is. 
And  you  don't  hear  men  of  their  stamp  talking  about  tempera- 
ment. 

And  finally,  as  to  rendering,  a  fine  rendering  is  like  a  well 
dressed  man  or  woman.  The  vulgar  person,  like  the  vulgar 
drawing,  is  bedizened  in  the  hope  of  attracting  attention — and 
they  both  do,  but  not  the  kind  of  attention  worth  having.  Make 
your  drawing  look  like  a  good  deed  in  a  naughty  world. 


VII 

THE  PROPERTIES  OF  PIGMENTS 

Water  Color  Pigments.  Winsor  and  Newton's  pigments 
are  the  Anglo-Saxon  standard.  Excellent  and  pure  pigments 
are  also  made  by  Hatfield  of  Boston.  I  like  them  best  in  tubes 
or  half  tubes,  because  they  keep  soft  for  a  long  time,  and  the 
harder  pan  colors  wear  out  a  favorite  carefully  chosen  brush. 
Suit  yourself.  If  you  elect  for  pans  you  will  be  in  company  no 
less  distinguished  than  that  of  Jules  Guerin.  But  don't  use  your 
best  brush  to  mix  your  colors  with  in  that  case — use  an  old  one. 

Light  and  Heavy  Pigments.  In  the  interest  of  simplicity 
these  pigments  may  be  grouped  into  two  classes  irrespective  of 
their  color — as  transparent  or  light  weight,  and  as  opaque,  heavy, 
or  "deposing"  (from  the  French  deposer,  to  deposit).  And 
this  classification  is  of  particular  value  to  the  Tenderer. 

Transparent  or  Opaque,  Heavy  and 

Light- Weight  Pigments      Deposing  Pigments 

Reds       Carmine  Vermilion 

Alizarin  Crimson  Light  Red 

Rose  Madder  Burnt  Sienna 

Yellows  Gamboge  Raw  Sienna 

Gall  Stone  or  Ox  Gall  Cadmium  Pale 

YelloVv  Ochre 

Green      Viridian  (Verte  Emeraude) 

Il6 


THE  PROPERTIES  OF  PIGMENTS  117 

Transparent  or  Opaque,  Heavy  and 

Light-W eight  Pigments       Deposing  Pigments 
Blues       Prussian  Blue  Cobalt 

French  or  Ultramarine 
Smalt 
Grey       Payne's  Grey  (Bluish) 

Blacks  Charcoal  Grey 

Peach  Black 
Ivory  Black 
There  is,  of  course,  but  one  good  way  to  learn  the  character- 
istics of  these  colors  and  that  is  to  try  them  out  in  mixtures.     It 
will  do  no  harm,  however,  to  indicate  what  may  be  expected. 
First  as  to  their  individual  properties: 

Properties  of  Pigments. 
Carmine:    A  beautiful,  transparent  crimson  red  of  great 
strength.     A  very  little  goes  a  great  way. 

Alizarin  Crimson:  Very  like  Carmine  but  somewhat 
sharper  and  harsher  to  the  trained  eye.  It  is  an  aniline  color 
and  used  to  be  rated  as  fugitive.  Some  chemists  say  that  aniline 
colors  as  now  made  are  permanent.  The  best  way  is  to  try 
them  out.  Lay  a  flat  wash  of  Carmine  side  by  side  with  one  of 
Alizarin  Crimson,  cut  the  paper  in  half,  put  one  half  away  in 
a  drawer  out  of  the  light  and  pin  the  other  up  in  a  good  bright 
light.  Compare  them  at  the  end  of  a  month  and  form  your  judg- 
ment on  the  result.  If  you  really  want  to  know  about  colors, 
do  the  same  with  all  of  them,  pure  and  in  mixtures.  You'll 
learn  more  about  their  durability  in  a  month  in  this  than  in  any 
other  way. 

Rose  MaJder:     A  beautiful  rose-colored  transparent  pig- 
ment of  very  little  strength  in  mixtures.     It  used  to  be  rated  as 


ii8  ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

very  fugitive.  Greater  permanency  is  claimed  for  it  now  if  the 
drawing  is  afterwards  protected  against  damp  air  by  glass.  A 
valid  objection  to  its  use  in  water  color  lies  in  the  fact  that 
it  is  made  of  the  madder  root  and  deposits  in  a  thin  film  or  scum, 
on  the  paper,  which  lifts  and  stirs  if  the  wash  is  worked  over  or 
through  again  as  is  so  frequently  necessary,  and  makes  the  wash 
look  muddy  and  messy. 

Vermilion  (English)  :  A  brilliant  Red  inclining  toward 
Yellow  rather  than  Blue,  of  great  weight,  which  settles  or  de- 
poses very  swiftly.  A  wash  in  which  Vermilion  occurs  must  be 
kept  moving  and  not  allowed  to  stand  for  an  instant  or  streaks  or 
areas  of  red  will  appear.  This  is  all  very  well  and  highly  desir- 
able in  free  water  color  work,  particularly  if  you  control  the 
settling  process — of  which,  later  on. 

Light  Red:  This  is  classed  among  the  heavy  colors  because 
it  is  so  opaque,  although  it  does  not  settle  out  very  much.  But 
it  is  very  powerful,  and  a  very  little  bit  will  strongly  affect  a  big 
wash.  Its  usefulness  lies  in  its  faculty  for  helping  make  Greys. 
Cobalt  Blue  with  a  mere  touch  of  Light  Red  makes  a  beautiful 
transparent  Grey.  A  little  more  Red  and  you  have  a  Violet  of 
low  value. 

Burnt  Sienna:  This  is  classed  among  the  Reds  because  it 
belongs  rather  with  them  than  with  the  Yellows.  It  is  very 
heavy  and  settles  out  beautifully  in  a  wash  of  just  the  right  wet- 
ness. In  combination  with  French  or  Ultramarine  Blue,  with 
a  very  slight  admixture  of  Carmine,  I  have  rendered  a  great  many 
elevations  and  plans  as  well.  By  varying  the  speed  at  which  you 
move  the  wash  you  may  make  such  a  mixture  settle  out  to  a  great 
variety  of  tones.  The  French  Blue  being  heavier  than  the  Burnt 
Sienna,  it  settles  a  bit  faster.     Therefore,  if  you  pull  the  wash 


THE  PROPERTIES  OF  PIGMENTS  119 

fast  and  don't  give  the  Blue  time  to  settle  out,  the  Burnt  Sienna 
has  a  chance  and  the  wash  dries  out  warmer.  If  you  pull  it 
slowly  and  give  the  Blue  a  chance  to  settle,  the  Blue  will  pre- 
dominate when  dry.  The  Carmine  being  light  and  transparent 
is  not  afifected  by  the  speed  of  the  brush ;  it  is  added  as  a  corrective 
of  a  tendency  there  is,  when  the  Blue  and  Sienna  are  in  certain 
proportions,  to  make  a  greenish  tone. 

Gamboge:  A  beautiful,  transparent  Yellow  slightly  inclined 
toward  greenish.  It  combines  well  with  French  Blue,  Carmine, 
Vermilion,  Cadmium  and  Viridian.  In  naturalistic  and  free 
rendering  it  is  invaluable  for  the  greens  of  foliage  and  of  grass. 
With  the  admixture  of  a  little  Vermilion  in  places  and  of  Viri- 
dian in  others  it  is  fine  for  the  representation  of  gold  mosaics 
and  the  like.  It  is  not  for  use  in  formal  rendering  with  India 
Ink. 

Aureolin  Yellow:  Also  slightly  inclined  toward  greenish 
but  most  useful,  powerful  and  beautiful. 

Gail-Stone  or  Ox-Gall:  This  is  one  of  the  most  seductive  and 
deceptive  of  pigments.  Mixed  with  black  it  gives  a  wonderful 
transparency,  warmth  and  depth  to  the  shadows — for  about  a 
week.  Then  it  has  all  faded  and  the  charm  and  character  the 
drawing  showed  is  exchanged  for  a  lifeless  greenish  hue.  It 
should  be  rigorously  excluded  from  the  working  palette,  as  all 
fugitive  colors  should  be. 

Raw  Sienna:  This  pigment  is  the  same  earth  as  Burnt  Sienna 
but  the  latter  is  roasted;  they  therefore  look  nothing  alike,  but 
have  the  same  weight  and  depose  at  the  same  rate.  Raw  Sienna 
may  be  used  in  formal  rendering  with  India  Ink  as  a  base.  It  is 
quite  a  light  yellow  when  diluted  and  with  the  black  of  the  ink, 
of  course  produces  a  greenish  tone  which  has  to  be  corrected  by 


120  ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

Carmine.  The  effect  of  a  rendering  in  which  it  is  used  as  the 
principal  toning  agent  is  rather  cold.  But  it  gives  a  very  stony- 
look  to  stone  when  used  for  local  color  and  the  cold  effect  may  be 
counterbalanced  by  warming  up  the  shadows  with  Burnt  Sienna. 

Cadmium  Pale :  An  opaque  golden  yellow,  little  if  any  used 
in  formal  rendering,  but  excellent  in  free  water  color  work.  It 
has  body,  and  combines  with  Gamboge  to  make  a  third  beautiful 
yellow.     It  does  not  noticeably  depose. 

Yellow  Ochre:  Like  Cadmium,  Yellow  Ochre  does  not  de- 
pose, but  it  is  an  earth  and  not  transparent.  Ingres  called  it,  in 
oils,  a  "heaven-sent  pigment."  It  is  useful  in  some  ways  and  at 
certain  times  in  free  rendering.  But  I  should  banish  it  from  the 
formal  rendering  palette.  It  has  been  a  kind  of  superstition 
handed  down  in  the  schools  that  if  you  want  to  get  sunlight  and 
warmth  into  a  drawing,  float  a  wash  of  Yellow  Ochre  over  the 
paper  first.  Or,  if  you  have  finished  a  water  color  and  have 
failed  to  get  sunlight  and  warmth  in  it,  float  a  wash  of  Yellow 
Ochre  over  it.  Permit  me  to  say  that  these  recipes  are  entirely 
fallacious  except  for  a  body  color  drawing  and  that  either  proc- 
ess is  guaranteed  to  take  the  life  out  of  a  drawing  in  transparent 
color  in  the  shortest  possible  time.  It  is  peculiarly  deadly  over 
a  completed  drawing,  for  the  opaque  particles  of  the  earth  form  a 
film  or  scum  over  everything.  The  first  thing  it  does  to  white 
paper  is  to  kill  its  reflecting  power — and  it  is  the  white  paper 
throwing  the  light  back  to  the  eye  through  the  washes  which 
gives  the  drawing  transparency,  depth,  and  brilliancy.  Jules 
Guerin  includes  it  in  his  regular  working  palette.  (See  page 
129).  But  he  knows  how  and  where  and  when  to  use  it;  he  works 
not  only  in  very  close  values  but  principally  in  body  color — har- 
monies rather  than  contrasts — diffused  light  rather  than  sunlight. 


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THE  PROPERTIES  OF  PIGMENTS  121 

Frank  Hazell,  who  paints  sunlight  as  few  men  can,  floats  it  over 
the  paper  first;  but  he  too  works  chiefly  in  body  color  wherein 
the  Chinese  White  takes  the  place  of  the  white  paper.  He  says 
he  gets  immense  brilliancy  by  allowing  the  Yellow  Ochre,  some- 
times quite  deep  and  strong,  to  show  as  the  high  lights.  So  I 
repeat  it  has  its  place  and  its  great  value,  but  not  in  formal 
rendering. 

Viridian:  This  is  the  equivalent  in  water  color  of  Verte 
Emeraude  in  oils  and  which  latter  is  not  at  all  the  same  as 
Emerald  Green  although  this  would  be  a  literal  translation. 
Viridian  and  Verte  Emeraude  are  both  made  from  Oxide  of 
Chromium  and  are  pure  and  permanent  pigments.  Emerald 
Green  is  made  from  copper  and  in  certain  mixtures  will  destroy 
other  colors  by  chemical  action.  Viridian  is  neither  so  powerful 
nor  so  heavy  as  Emerald  Green  but  is  a  deposing  color  neverthe- 
less. In  formal  rendering  in  color  it  is  good  for  giving  the  effect 
of  copper  roofs,  bronze  doors  and  the  like.  In  free  rendering, 
for  foliage  and  shutters  and  so  on.  And  for  certain  skies,  in- 
valuable. Cobalt  with  some  Viridian  makes  a  marvelous  blue 
sky. 

Cobalt:  Perhaps  the  most  beautiful  and  useful  of  all  the 
Blues.  It  is  as  near  pure  blue  as  pigments  come,  inclining  neither 
to  greenish  nor  purplish.  It  is  not  powerful,  but  it  settles  or 
deposes  beautifully.  It  is  good  for  almost  every  use.  In  formal 
rendering,  a  touch  of  it  in  India  Ink  gives  a  sky  with  air  in  it, 
or  bathes  a  distant  plane  in  atmosphere. 

French  or  Ultramarine  Blue:  ("New  Blue"  is  very  similar 
— said  not  to  be  as  pure  or  permanent.)  A  rich  and  splendid 
blue — what  might  be  called  a  *'warm"  blue,  inclining  more 
toward  purplish  than  Cobalt  does.     It  is  very  heavy  and  settles 


122  ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

out  well  in  all  mixtures.  The  writer  uses  it  a  great  deal  both  in 
free  water  colors  and  in  formal  rendering.  But  it  is  too  heavy 
for  distant  planes  or  skies  in  formal  rendering  or  for  skies  in  free 
work. 

Ultramarine  and  Vermilion  form  a  mutually  destructive 
mixture  and  turn  each  other  black  by  chemical  action. 

Prussian  Blue:  A  greenish  blue.  The  only  use  I  have  been 
able  to  find  for  this  pigment  is  in  free  rendering  in  certain  aspects 
of  moonlight  to  give  a  strong  greenish  cast  without  using  heavy 
color  which  would  settle  too  much  for  the  special  effect  to  be 
rendered. 

Smalt:  Smalt  is  very  little  used.  It  is  the  heaviest  color 
of  which  I  know,  made  of  ground  blue  glass  which  settles 
instantly,  and  has  to  be  manipulated  at  lightning  speed  and  very 
wet  and  with  the  greatest  skill.  The  particles  of  color  lift  and 
shift  when  another  wash  is  passed  over  it  and  the  result  is  apt  to 
be  muddy.  It  is  usually  used  the  last  thing  as  a  floated  wash 
to  make  the  drawing  look  as  though  it  were  done  all  at  once, 
swiftly,  and  wet. 

Payne's  Grey:  This  color  Jules  Guerin  includes  in  his 
permanent  working  palette  as  an  equivalent  for  black,  useful 
for  certain  greys  or  to  make  a  bluish  black.  It  is  dangerous  to 
have  on  the  palette  as  a  regular  thing  and  should  only  be  squeezed 
out  when  needed,  because  the  brush  may  only  too  easily  wander 
to  it  and  it  chills  off  some  colors,  makes  others  muddy  and  greys 
all  down  (reduces  their  "value").  Like  Rose  Madder  or 
Brown  Madder,  it  is  deposited  like  a  kind  of  scum  on  the  paper 
which  lifts  when  the  wash  is  gone  over  again.  It  must  be  re- 
membered however,  that  the  way  a  thing  is  done  makes  all  the 
difference  in  the  world. 


THE  PROPERTIES  OF  PIGMENTS  123 

Charcoal  Grey  and  Peach  Black:  The  first  is  a  rather  cold, 
the  second  a  rather  warm  black.  They  both  have  their  advocates, 
and  their  friends  sometimes  advise  their  use  as  substitutes  for 
India  Ink  in  formal  rendering,  because  they  settle  and  give  a 
certain  amount  of  texture  to  a  wash,  especially  in  cases  where 
there  is  not  much  time  to  work  up  a  texture.  But  having  tried 
them  thoroughly  and  been  thoroughly  tried  by  them,  I  use  them 
no  more  except  as  a  pale  final  wash  for  the  sake  of  texture. 
Washes  of  these  pigments  are  carbonaceous  in  quality.  The  par- 
ticles of  color  are  very  light  (Charcoal  Grey  is  made  from 
charcoal)  and  float  off  to  the  edges  of  a  wet  wash  and  deposit 
themselves  in  a  sooty  little  line.  Also  a  wash  of  these  pigments 
won't  bear  much  working  over  as  is  necessary  in  building  up  a 
value  in  strong  shadows. 

Ivory  Black:  A  warm  black  which,  to  me,  for  formal  ren- 
dering, partakes  of  the  defects  of  Peach  Black  and  Charcoal 
Grey,  There  is  no  black  like  strained  India  Ink.  It  produces 
no  effect  of  texture,  but  there  are  ways  of  overcoming  that,  beau- 
tifully and  easily. 

Be  sure,  before  beginning  work  with  these  or  any  pigments, 
to  examine  them  to  see  that  they  are  in  good  condition.  Old 
dry  colors  will  sometimes  fail  to  dissolve  or  unite  with  other 
colors  or  the  India  Ink. 

Pace  in  Running  Washes.  It  must  be  firmly  borne  in 
mind  that  the  proportion  of  one  pigment  to  another  in  a  wash 
produces  totally  different  results  at  slow  or  fast  speed.  I  re- 
member on  one  occasion,  working  with  a  man  who  used  exactly 
the  same  palette  of  colors  as  I  do,  I  mixed  up  a  tone  for  the 
copper  roofs  on  his  elevation  and  mine — to  be  a  greenish  grey 
like  weathered  copper.     I  mixed,  of  course,  with  reference  to 


124  ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

my  own  pace  and  personal  technique  and  I  knew  just  what  was 
in  it.  When  my  roof  had  dried  out  it  was  just  what  I  expected  it 
to  be.  His  was  nothing  like  mine  nor  like  weathered 
copper.  I  was  no  more  skilful  than  he.  The  result  would  have 
been  reversed  had  he  mixed  the  wash.  He  would  instinctively 
have  mixed  it  with  reference  to  his  own  methods  of  handling, 
speed  in  manipulation  and  so  on.  There  was  a  good  deal  of 
Emerald  Green  in  the  wash.  I  pulled  it  fast  and  not  too  wet 
so  that  the  heavy  particles  of  the  Emerald  Green  would  not 
have  a  chance  to  deposit  unevenly  or  too  much.  He  probably 
worked  slowly  and  pretty  wet. 

I  relate  this  incident  because  I  learned  so  much  from  it.  And 
I  date  a  more  complete  and  accurate  knowledge  of  the  properties 
of  water  colors  and  their  manipulation  from  it  because  it  set  me 
thinking.  Among  the  things  it  taught  me  is  the  secret  of  regulat- 
ing the  speed  of  washes  according  to  their  composition.  Until 
one's  knowledge  of  pigments  and  how  they  will  act  is  accurate — 
quasi-scientific  if  you  like — one  is  not  master  of  his  materials. 
They  must  be  under  his  control.  Particularly  in  free  water  color 
rendering  by  a  real  master  of  his  craft,  much  that  looks  like  happy 
accident  is  deliberately  planned  to  happen. 

In  Nature  the  infinite  variety  of  tones  we  see  are  produced 
by  the  effect  of  the  red,  green  and  violet  rays  of  the  spectrum 
on  the  nervous  structure  of  the  retina.  To  represent  these  tones 
in  Nature  by  the  use  of  pigments,  however,  we  must  use  the  three 
so-called  primary  colors — red,  yellow,  and  blue.  With  com- 
binations of  the  difi^erent  reds,  yellows  and  blues  described  above 
any  gamut  of  tones  may  be  established  to  suit  the  taste  and 
temperament  of  the  painter.  The  best  way  to  find  out  what  they 
will  do  in  mixtures  is  to  try  them  out,  laying  a  series  of  small 


THE  PROPERTIES  OF  PIGMENTS  125 

graded  washes,  running  them  fast  and  running  them  slow  and 
noting  the  combination  and  speed  beside  each.  But  in  the  mean- 
time this  is  what  they  do  in  combination : 

Red  and  Blue  make  Violet  (Purple) 
Red  and  Yellow  make  Orange. 
Yellow  and  Blue  make  Green. 

To  make  Grey — Take  Red  and  Blue  and  mix  a  Violet.  Add 
Yellow  to  it  until  the  desired  Grey  is  reached.  Make  it  darker 
or  lighter  by  the  proportion  of  pigment  to  the  water. 

To  make  Brown — Take  Red  and  Yellow  and  mix  an  Orange. 
Add  Blue  to  it  until  you  get  the  Brown  you  want,  darker  or 
lighter  according  to  the  proportions  of  pigment  and  water. 

Observe  that  in  making  Grey  and  Brown  you  use  exactly  the 
same  colors;  the  difference  in  the  proportion  of  each  makes 
Grey  or  Brown.  The  reason  for  mixing  a  Violet  first  as  a  basis 
for  Grey  and  for  mixing  Orange  as  a  basis  for  Brown  is  simple 
and  obvious. — If  you  mix  Yellow  and  Blue,  which  makes  a 
Green  and  add  Red  to  it  until  you  get  the  Grey  you  want  you'll 
do  quite  a  bit  of  mixing  and  adding  before  you  get  it.  Violet 
is  simply  nearer  to  a  Grey  than  Green.  The  same  principle  ap- 
plies in  making  Brown — Orange,  a  combination  of  Red  and  Yel- 
low is  nearer  to  Brown  than  either  Violet  or  Green  and  therefore 
simpler  and  easier  and  surer  to  start  out  with. 

You  now  have,  with  three  simple  colors  as  a  starting  point, 
a  total  of  eight  colors — Red,  Yellow,  Blue,  Violet,  Orange, 
Green,  Grey  and  Brown.  And  you  have  the  possibility  of  all 
the  tones  there  are  by  varying  the  proportion  of  each  constitutent. 
By  an  increase  of  Red  over  Blue  in  Violet  you  get  a  reddish  or 
warmer  Violet  which  is  Purple;  more  Blue  than  Red  gives  a 


126  ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

colder,  because  bluer,  Violet.  (Colors  are  rated  as  warmer 
or  colder  as  they  incline  to  the  Red  or  the  Violet  end  of  the 
spectrum — in  which  the  gradation  is  as  follows  from  left  to 
right:  Red — Orange — Yellow — Green — Blue — Violet.  The 
transitional  colors  are  here  omitted.)  It  is  thus  possible  to  mix, 
with  Red,  Blue  and  Yellow,  a  warm  or  reddish  Grey,  a  bluish 
Grey  or  a  yellowish  Grey,  far  more  subtle  in  quality  than  a  ready 
mixed  Grey  and  having  by  its  make-up  a  definite  affinity  with  all 
the  other  tones  you  use  because  it  is  made  from  the  same  basic 
pigments.  The  same  is  true  of  Brown  or  Green.  With  the  ex- 
ception of  Viridian  I  avoid  all  ready  mixed  greens.  Blue  and 
Yellow  give,  I  think,  much  more  beautiful  Greens  inclining  to 
Blue  or  Yellow  as  the  case  demands.  For  certain  Greens  just 
Viridian  and  Yellow  will  do  it. 

Working  Palette.  It  is  important  in  establishing  a  working 
palette  of  pigments  (I  use  the  word  "pigments"  deliberately  here 
instead  of  "colors")  to  make  it  as  simple  as  possible,  with  as  few 
colors  as  possible,  and  to  choose  such  pigments  as  combine  well 
together  and  give  clear,  pure  tones,  not  muddy  ones.  For  in- 
stance, Carmine  and  Cobalt,  Carmine  and  French  Blue,  or  Co- 
balt and  Vermilion  make  beautiful  clear,  pure  Violets.  Prussian 
Blue  and  Carmine  or  Prussian  Blue  and  Crimson  Lake  produce 
just  mud.  It  is  well  to  have  more  than  one  Red,  Yellow  and  Blue 
in  your  palette  because  each  pigment  of  these  colors  has  different 
qualities. 

This  is  the  writer's  working  palette : 

Vermilion — a  heavy  Red  inclining  to  Yellow. 
Carmine — a  transparent,  crimson  Red  inclining  to  Violet  rather 
than  Yellow. 


THE  PROPERTIES  OF  PIGMENTS  127 

Cadmium  Pale — an  opaque  golden  Yellow. 
Gamboge — a  transparent  Yellow  inclining  to  Green. 
Viridian — a  heavy  Green  of  cold  tone. 
Cobalt  Blue — a  heavy  pure  Blue. 

French  (or  Ultramarine)  Blue — a  heavier  Blue  inclining  toward 
Violet. 

To  these  for  special  purposes  on  special  occasions  and  for 
formal  rendering  are  added: 

Burnt  Sienna — for  both  formal  and  free  rendering. 

Light  Red — very  occasionally  for  Greys  with  Cobalt  and  certain 

dull  tones  of  Red. 
Raw  Sienna — for  formal  rendering  occasionally. 
Yellow  Ochre — in  free  rendering  occasionally  in  Greys  or  earth 

tones. 
Payne's  Grey — in  free  rendering  to  deepen  Violets  or  Blues  or 

take  the  place  of  Black. 
Chinese  (Zinc)  White — Useful  on  occasions  in  both  free  and 

formal  rendering — in  the  latter  to  retrieve  blunders  but 

never  otherwise  except  in  rapid  work  where  it  would  take 

too  long  to  leave  out  brilliant  high  lights. 

All  of  the  seven  pigments  first  given  combine  perfectly.  Of 
course,  one  may  make  mud  with  them  as  with  any  palette,  but 
their  weights  and  consistencies  go  together  admirably.  Chem- 
ically, French  Blue  and  Vermilion  in  mixture  are  bad  and  go 
black  in  time.  Cobalt  and  Vermilion  are  safe.  The  addition  of 
Chinese  White,  which  is  opaque  and  made  of  zinc,  to  any  other 
pigment  makes  an  opaque  mixture.  White  is  added  to  other  pig- 
ments in  oil  color  painting  to  lighten  them,  but  in  water  color 


128  ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

painting  the  white  is  supplied  by  the  white  of  the  paper  and,  as 
before  stated,  it  is  the  white  surface  throwing  back  the  light 
through  the  film  of  color  particles  deposited  on  it  in  the  wash 
which  gives  brilliancy  and  freshness  to  the  drawing.  This  is  a 
good  thing  to  remember  in  working  on  colored  paper  and  is, 
of  course,  the  reason  why,  in  order  to  get  brilliancy  in  such 
drawings,  the  white  lacking  in  the  paper  is  frequently  supplied 
by  the  use  of  Chinese  White  either  throughout  or  in  places.  A 
painting  in  which  Chinese  White  is  used  throughout  is  said  to 
be  made  in  "body  color";  ''gouache"  is  another  term  for  it, 
though  gouache  colors  strictly  speaking  come  ready  prepared 
with  the  zinc  white  mixed  in  them. 

A  point  so  obvious  that  it  doesn't  occur  readily  to  one  is  this: 
If  we  color  two  equal  areas  (say  a  quarter  of  an  inch  square) 
with  the  same  wash  exactly,  using  quite  a  dry  brush  in  the  one 
case  and  a  loaded  one  in  the  other,  the  latter  is  darker,  for  there 
are  more  particles  of  pigment  suspended  in  the  larger  amount  of 
water  placed  in  the  same  area  and  when  the  water  evaporates 
they  are  left  behind.  Color  is  prepared  from  various  earths  and 
chemicals,  vegetable  and  animal  substances  in  the  form  of  pow- 
der, to  which,  for  water  colors,  water  and  glycerine  are  added,  oil 
for  oil  colors,  glue  and  water  for  distemper,  egg  and  vinegar 
for  Tempera,  the  powder  being  practically  the  same  for  all;  in 
Water  Color  it  may  be  clearly  and  easily  demonstrated  that  the 
color  is  produced  on  the  paper  by  the  deposit  of  the  tiny,  some- 
times almost  microscopic,  particles  of  powder;  thus,  in  a  Violet 
wash,  Red  and  Blue  particles  are  deposited  side  by  side  and 
produce  the  effect  of  Violet  on  the  eye;  the  thinner  the  wash 
we  lay  (that  is,  the  more  water  in  proportion  to  the  pigment) 


THE  PROPERTIES  OF  PIGMENTS 


129 


the  fewer  the  particles  of  powder  on  the  paper  and  therefore 
the  paler  the  Violet,  or  Red,  or  Blue,  or  any  other  color. 

Jules  Guerin's  working  palette  is  as  follows:  It  is  applicable 
only  to  free  rendering,  for  this  great  artist  does  not,  now  at  any 
rate,  make  formal  renderings: 


Carmine 
Light  Red 
Vermilion 


Yellow  Ochre 
Gamboge 
Emerald  Green 
Chinese  White 


Cobalt 

Ultramarine  Blue 
Payne's  Grey 
(occasionally) 


This  is  the  palette  of  Professor  Paul  Phillipe  Cret  of  Phila^ 
delphia,  one  of  the  most  distinguished  aquarellists  in  the  profes- 
sion.    He  says:    "For  water  color,  I  use 


Light  Red  or 
Indian  Red 
Vermilion 
Carmine 
Raw  Sienna 
Burnt  Sienna 


Chrome  Yellow  #1  Cerulean  Blue 

Chrome  Yellow  #4  Cobalt  Blue 

Yellow  Lake  French  Blue 

Yellow  Ochre  Prussian  Blue 

Emerald  Green  Van  Dyke  Brown 

Veronese  Green  Sepia 


"This  is  not  absolutely  'ne  varietur';  I  use  occasionally  one 
purple.  Smalt  Blue  or  what  happens  to  be  around  and  not  too 
dry. 

"For  architectural  rendering  in  color  I  have  no  special  range 
of  pigments,  using  part  of  the  group  above  according  to  the 
color  scheme  selected. 

"I  have  used  either  pure  India  Ink  or  a  mixture  of  Ivory 
Black  and  Raw  Sienna  most  frequently." 

The  extraordinary  ability  of  Otto  R.  Eggers  and  his  reputa- 


130  ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 


tion  as  one  of  the  greatest  draughtsmen  of  modern  times  make 
the  colors  he  uses  of  unusual  interest  to  the  student.  I  give  his 
own  words: 

"I  use  all  Winsor  &  Newton  tube  colors  as  follows: 

New  Blue 
Neutral  Tint 


Light  Red 
Warm  Sepia 
Brown  Pink 
Chinese  White 


Cadmium  Orange 
Chrome  Orange 
Chrome  Yellow 
Raw  Sienna 
Sap  Green 


Mauve 
Ivory  Black 


"For  outdoor  sketching  I  use  those  mentioned  but  never 
Black,  and  Chinese  White  very  rarely. 

"I  may  add  that  wherever  possible  I  substitute  Raw  Sienna 
for  Brown  Pink,  especially  for  outdoor  work." 

Birch  Burdette  Long,  whose  name  is  known  in  every  archi- 
tectural household  through  his  perspective  renderings,  but  who 
does  not  indulge  in  formal  work,  makes  use  of 

Crimson  Lake  Cadmium  Pale  Antwerp  Blue 

Venetian  Red  Cadmium  Orange  New  Blue 

Vermilion  Chinese  White  Indigo 

Burnt  Sienna 


For  special  purposes: 


Aureolin  Yellow 
Raw  Sienna 
Raw  Umber 


Viridian  Green 
Hooker's  Green 
Ivory  Black 


Tempera: 


Zinnobar  Green  (light) 
Zinnobar  Green  (dark) 
Ultramarine  Blue  (dark) 


PLATE    I  7 


1!V    lilUKKT    (;.    RIPLEY 


This  drawing  is  made  in  body  color  on  grey  pa[)er  and  the  pcnril  drawing  is  made  to  play 

a  part  in  giving  it  vigor.     Observe  the  unerring  skill  in  the  choice  of  subject  and  point  of 

\  iew  and  the  way  the  big  darks  and  lights  are  massed. 


THE  PROPERTIES  OF  PIGMENTS 


131 


Frank  Hazell's  sketches  of  architecture  are  as  delightful  as 
his  landscapes.  He  uses  transparent  and  body  color  in  the  same 
drawing.  This  is  the  palette  with  which  he  gets  such  extraor- 
dinary brilliancy: 


Alizarin  Crimson 
Vermilion   (a  little) 
Chinese  White 
Cadmium  Yellow  (medium) 
Yellow  Ochre 


Ultramarine  or  French  Blue 
Cobalt  Blue 
Cadmium  Orange 
Hooker's  Green  (light) 
Hooker's  Green  (dark) 


Hubert  G.  Ripley  of  Boston,  whose  beautiful  work  is  not 
sufficiently  well  known  outside  the  Hub,  uses  the  following: 

For  free  work  in  water  color  and  for  architectural  rendering  in 
full  color: 


Alizarin  Crimson 
Rose  Madder 
Orange  Vermilion 


Aurora  Yellow 
Lemon  Yellow 
Yellow  Carmine 
Chinese  White 
Mauve 


Prussian  Blue 
Cerulean  Blue 
French  Blue 


This  he  simplifies  for  rapid  sketching  to 

Alizarin  Crimson 
Aurora  Yellow 


French  Blue 
Chinese  White 


In  formal  academic  rendering  he  uses  ground  India  Ink  as 
a  base  with  Aurora  and  Lemon  Yellow,  French  Blue,  Alizarin 
Crimson  and  Mauve  as  toning  agents. 

He  says:  "The  manipulation  of  the  colors  after  they  are 
applied  and  thoroughly  dry  on  the  drawing  changes  greatly  the 
effect  of  the  finished  work, — blotting  out  with  light  washes  of 


132  ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

water,  scrubbing  down;  and  softening  with  a  bristle  brush  here 
and  there;  glazing  over,  and  many  other  methods  produce  an 
infinite  variety  of  effects  at  will. 

''Sometimes  a  very  good  tone  may  be  made  by  starting  in  with 
a  soft  pencil,  making  almost  the  full  rendering;  going  over  it 
with  India  Ink,  jet  black  in  spots,  dragging  a  dry  brush  over  in 
places;  then  applying  washes  of  mauve  and  cramoisie;  blotting 
out,  scrubbing  down;  glazing;  and  finally  waxing  and  polishing 
with  a  woolen  rag,  or  an  old  pair  of  woolen  socks." 


VIII 
FULL  COLOR  AND  FREE  SKETCHING 

When  we  paint,  we  architects  are,  as  a  class,  dogged  by  our 
technical  knowledge,  and  cursed  with  a  professional  conscience 
which  will  permit  of  no  deviation  from  the  truth.  Our  training 
as  architects  unfits  us  for  the  point  of  view  of  the  painter.  When 
we  sketch  buildings  at  home  or  abroad  we  make  documents  of 
them.  We  know  that  a  certain  molding  up  there  has  just  such 
a  profile,  and  that  capital  just  such  decoration,  and  we  try  to 
combine  the  virtues  of  a  measured  drawing  and  of  a  water  color 
by  Sargent  or  Walcott.  But  the  painter  can  beat  us  hollow  when 
it  comes  to  painting  architecture.  He  knows  little  and  cares 
less  about  mouldings  and  details  of  ornament.  Where  to  us  they 
tell  a  lot  of  things  we  oughtn't  to  know  when  we  are  painting,  to 
him  they  are  masses  and  bands  and  spots  of  light  and  shade.  We 
work  under  the  constant  handicap  of  our  technical  knowledge 
of  form.  For  that  reason  it  is  better,  I  think,  when  we  go 
a-painting  to  sketch  things  with  the  actual  forms  of  which  we 
are  not  so  familiar — ships  and  things  along  the  waterfront,  trees 
and  rocks  and  sand  and  clouds.  We  can  then  see  or  learn  to  see 
objects  with  an  unprejudiced  eye  and  this  will  react  later  upon 
our  vision  of  architectural  form;  for  it  will  teach  us  not  merely 
to  make  better  sketches  of  architecture  but  to  do  better  archi- 
tecture because  we  have  learned  to  think  in  the  larger  terms  of 
light  and  shade  and  mass. 

There  are  two  principal  aims  in  making  a  sketch;  they  can- 

133 


134  ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

not  well  be  combined  and  so  the  best  policy  is  to  keep  them  quite 
distinct  in  your  mind  when  you  sit  down.  One  is  to  sketch  for 
your  own  education,  for  practise  in  rendering  the  exact  truth, 
the  absolute  facts  of  the  scene  before  you  without  special  refer- 
ence to  their  harmony — I  mean  of  course  such  facts  as  you  select 
from  the  scene  before  you — to  get  their  color  as  seen  under  the 
lighting  of  the  moment,  the  atmosphere  of  the  hour.  The  other 
is  to  make  a  corking  good  sketch  that  people  will  admire  and 
cause  them  to  wag  their  heads  and  tell  other  people  you  are  a 
clever  fellow;  and  such  a  sketch  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  truth 
of  the  matter;  if  a  mass  doesn't  arrange  itself  well  with  other 
masses,  move  it  over;  if  the  color  is  not  harmonious,  make  it  so; 
recompose  the  whole  thing,  if  you  like,  using  what  you  see 
merely  as  a  motif,  in  form  and  color.  You  are  not  seeking  facts, 
you  are  on  a  quest  for  beauty  and  the  sole  justification  of  a  re- 
arrangement, suppression  or  creation  of  facts  is  that  you  produce 
something  more  beautiful  thereby. 

So  also  there  are  well  marked  distinctions  between  painting 
landscape  and  architecture  from  Nature  out  of  doors,  making  a 
drawing  of  some  building  of  our  own  in  which  we  wish  to  bring 
out  facts  or  just  making  this  clever  sketch — differences  in  aim 
and  intention.  Most  of  our  foreign  sketching  must  naturally,  if 
we  are  serious  students  of  our  art,  be  in  the  direction  of  making 
accurate  transcripts  of  what  we  most  like.  When  we  go  abroad 
we  are  irresistibly  impelled  to  set  down  on  paper  our  impressions 
of  the  buildings  or  compositions  which  impress  us.  They  seem 
wonderfully  beautiful,  too  beautiful  to  try  to  improve  upon,  and 
so  we  humbly  try  to  render  that  beauty  as  truly  and  faithfully  as 
we  can.  And  tone  by  tone  and  value  by  value,  shadow  by  shadow, 
and  light  by  wonderful  light  we  do  our  best.   The  same  is  usually 


PLATE    1 8  BY    JULES    GUERIX 

This  drawing  illustrates  admirably  the  interest  with  which  an  artist  of  vision  can  invest  an 
essentially  commonplace  and  restless  design  by  presenting  it  in  an  unusual  aspect.     Look  at  it 

upside  down  also. 


FULL  COLOR  AND  FREE  SKETCHING   135 

true  of  sketching  landscape  from  Nature.  As  with  an  archi- 
tectural subject,  we  choose  our  moment,  when  the  light  is  favor- 
able to  our  vision  of  it,  when  it  is  enveloped  in  atmosphere  or 
sparkling  in  sunshine  or  gleaming  softly  under  the  moon.  But 
in  the  type  of  sketch  referred  to  above  where  the  subject  is 
merely  a  peg  to  hang  an  effect  upon  and  to  do  just  as  we  please 
with,  irrespective  and  regardless  of  the  truth  of  things,  our  fancy 
is  our  only  guide.  We  tell  the  purists  who  preach  against  the 
iniquity  of  using  body  color  and  transparent  color  in  the  same 
drawing  to  go  hang — and  take  grey  paper  or  buff  paper  or  any 
tone  we  like  and  transparent  color  and  Chinese  White  and  Mr. 
Ripley's  old  pair  of  woolen  socks  and  have  the  time  of  our  lives 
— frequently  making  our  very  best  sketches. 

Choice  of  Subject  and  Point  of  View.  Choosing  not 
merely  the  point  of  view  but  the  aspect  of  a  subject  has  every- 
thing to  do  with  the  interest  and  success  of  the  sketch  because 
these  are  constructive  and  fundamental.  And  beyond  these  still 
lies  the  choice  of  the  subject.  Some  men  always  seem  to  select 
with  unerring  taste  and  judgment  not  merely  the  most  distin- 
guished subjects  but  the  most  distinguished  and  interesting  point 
of  view  and  their  most  beguiling  aspects.  Much  of  this  is  of 
course  inborn  and  instinctive,  but  the  judgment  and  taste  may 
be  trained  by  observation,  study  and  comparison.  Some  men 
seem  instinctively  to  pick  out  stupid  subjects,  lighted  in  stupid 
ways.  Keep  looking  at  sketches  by  the  best  men  and  dissect  and 
analyze  their  charm.  As  a  special  case  in  point  refer  to  Plate 
No.  19,  a  sketch  by  Hubert  Ripley,  and  observe  how  he  chose 
the  most  interesting  spot,  to  an  inch,  from  which  to  make  his 
sketch.     Note  how  Jules  Guerin  invariably  selects  the  distin- 


136  ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

guished  point  of  view  and  aspect  of  a  distinguished  subject. 
(See  Plate  No.  18  and  frontispiece.) 

Composition.  In  any  sketch  the  choice  of  the  point  of  view 
is  the  most  important  factor,  the  time  of  day  second  and  the  kind 
of  day  third.  The  first  will  give  you  your  composition  of  line 
and  mass,  the  second  your  composition  of  light  and  shade,  the 
next  your  values  and  key. 

Key.  I  have  deferred  the  definition  of  "key"  till  now  be- 
cause while  it  is  perfectly  applicable  to  monotone  renderings,  it 
has  a  closer  relation  to  a  painting  in  color.  Value  being  the 
quantity  of  light  in  a  tone.  Color  being  the  quality  of  light  in  a 
tone,  "Key"  is  the  pitch  of  the  drawing  or  painting  itself.  This 
may  be  most  clearly  explained  by  an  example.  A  painting  of 
starlight  would  have  very  little  light  in  it;  therefore  while  the 
values  in  it  must  be  relatively  right,  each  to  each,  they  would  be 
said  to  be  "low"  and  the  pitch  of  the  painting  as  a  whole  (its 
"key")  would  also  be  low.  Conversely  both  the  values  and  the 
key  of  a  picture  of  blinding  sunlight  would  be  "high."  Which 
leads  us  to  the  postulate  that  the  term  "Values"  applies  to  details 
and  their  relations  to  each  other,  and  that  "Key"  applies  to  the 
drawing  or  painting  as  a  whole. 

Appliances.  In  an  ofBce  it  may  be  assumed  that  we  are  pro- 
vided with  proper  appliances  for  our  work,  blotters  at  hand, 
plenty  of  godets  and  tumblers  and  bowls.  Even  at  home  the 
pantry  may  be  levied  upon  and  finger  bowls  and  saucers  and 
plates  requisitioned  and  in  both  places  there  will  be  lots  of  run- 
ning wa<"^r.  For  the  field,  however,  we  must  make  careful  pro- 
vision. Whether  for  outdoors  or  indoors  I  believe  in  a  folding 
metallic  white-enameled  palette  with  stalls  for  the  colors  on  one 
of  its  halves.    Some  kinds  have  depressed  places  in  one  of  the 


PI. All-;   iq 


HV    HIHHKT   (i.    KIPLKY 


Illustrating  ihc  choitc  of  a  point  of  nIlw.  Observe  the  interesting  relation  of  the 
cornice  to  the  wall,  indicating  the  width  of  the  pavilion.  (See  p.  135.)  This  repro- 
duction does  scant  justice  to  the  values  of  the  drawing,  which  it  was  apparently 
impossible  to  photograph  correctly.  It  is  done  in  body  color  on  yellowish  paper 
which  shows  through  the  blue  sky,  the  Chinese  White  wash  run  over  the  architectural 
forms,  and  the  purple  shadows.  The  ground  beyond  the  steps  is  rich  yellow  and  the 
trees  vivid  green  with  yellow  lights. 


FULL  COLOR  AND  FREE  SKETCHING   137 

halves  which  will  hold  quite  a  lot  of  wash  for  skies  and  such. 
Somehow,  though  perhaps  it  is  a  matter  of  habit,  you  feel  more 
as  though  you  were  painting  when  your  thumb  is  in  the  hole  in 
the  palette  and  you  have  partially  mastered  the  trick  of  keeping 
it  level  so  that  the  washes  don't  run  oflf  on  to  your  trousers.  With 
such  a  palette,  you  carry  your  surplus  supply  of  colors  in  a 
pocket  or  somewhere.  Your  precious  brushes  should  be  in  a 
case,  strapped  with  an  elastic  band  to  a  flat  cardboard  so  that 
they  may  not  be  injured.  A  perfect  water  bottle  has  still  to  be 
invented — try  some  and  take  the  one  you  hate  least.  An  army 
canteen  is  good.  I  find  an  old  whisky  flask  pretty  good  except 
for  a  faint  disturbing  aroma  which  clings  about  the  cork.  There 
are  good  sketching  stools  and  easels  to  be  had.  It  isn't  a  bad  thing 
to  have  indoor  and  outdoor  conditions  alike,  so  far  as  one  can. 
It  makes,  by  force  of  habit,  for  unconsciousness  of  appliances 
and  inconveniences.  When  you  first  go  out  into  the  field  after  a 
long  period  of  ease  and  luxury  indoors — the  luxury  of  plenty  of 
water,  places  to  lay  things  down,  no  wind,  no  dust,  no  mosquitoes, 
no  horseflies — you  go  nearly  crazy  and  your  mind  is  so  taken  up 
with  keeping  your  palette  level  and  protecting  yourself  against 
dear  old  Nature  that  it  is  hardly  tranquil  enough  for  a  good 
sketch.  Be  just  as  comfortable  as  you  can  indoors  or  out.  If 
your  legs  are  all  cramped  up  with  an  uncomfortable  seat,  or  if 
you  think  you'll  get  along  without  a  seat  and  take  the  ground 
and  find  yourself  sitting  in  a  puddle  or  on  an  iceberg,  you  can't 
paint. 

Mounted  Paper.  Believing  as  I  do  in  a  plane  surface  to 
work  upon,  I  advocate  mounting  the  paper  solid  on  cardboard 
with  another  piece  (of  common  paper)  mounted  on  the  back  to 
counteract  the  pull  and  keep  the  board  flat.    Both  indoors  and 


138  ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

outdoors  it  is  also  possible  for  those  who  like  to  work  on  wet 
paper  to  take  a  piece  of  glass  (a  picture  glass,  frame  and  all,  if 
you  please) ,  soak  your  paper  till  it  is  limp  and  lay  it  on  the  glass. 
It  will  keep  very  wet  for  a  long  time  and  of  course  perfectly 
flat;  also  of  course  the  drawing  must  be  made  on  the  paper  be- 
fore it  is  wet.  With  a  little  practise  the  most  ripping  things 
may  be  done.  The  color  has  to  be  put  on  much  stronger  than 
you  would  use  if  you  were  working  on  dry  paper  because  it 
soaks  in  so  much.  As  the  paper  dries,  the  portions  requiring 
more  definition  are  put  in,  until  you  reach  the  crisp  accents 
when  the  paper  is  almost  dry.     (Plate  No.  20.) 

Setting  the  Palette.  After  you  have  made  the  drawing 
you  will  "set  your  palette"  which  means  squeezing  out  your 
tube  colors  in  a  certain  sequence  or  arranging  your  pans  in  that 
order.  There  are  various  ways  of  doing  it  and  every  man  swears 
by  his  own.  It  seems  simple  and  logical  to  follow  the  sequence 
in  the  spectrum  and  this  is  always  easy  to  remember.  Start- 
ing at  the  left,  Red,  Orange,  Yellow,  Green,  Green  Blue,  Blue, 
Violet.  If  I  have  Payne's  Grey  I  put  it  last,  on  the  right,  and 
Chinese  White  on  the  extreme  left.  This  would  also  mean  that 
if  you  had  three  Blues,  for  instance,  on  your  palette,  Cyanine 
Blue  would  go  in  the  Green  Blue  space.  Cobalt  in  the  Blue  space, 
French  Blue  next  to  the  Violet  space.  But  heaven  forbid  that 
you  should  go  forth  to  sketch  with  any  such  array  of  colors  as 
this  would  suggest.  With  one  Red,  one  Yellow,  one  Blue  and 
Chinese  White,  you'll  come  back  with  a  simpler,  stronger, 
cleaner  sketch  than  you  ever  made  before  and  probably  one  in 
key.  The  reason  for  an  habitual  arrangement  of  your  colors  is 
that  presently  your  brush  goes  to  the  color  you  want  instinctively 


I 


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■^    I!^'  J  >«-^  <i>  --i 


platp:  20 


HV    THE    AUTHOR 


To  illustrate  working  on  wet  paper  laid  on  a  sheet  of  glass.  (See  p.  138.)  The  general  tones  are 
put  on  first,  and  as  the  paper  dries  the  parts  requiring  more  definition  are  put  in,  and  the  crisp 
accents  when  the  paper  is  almost  dry.  The  color  has  to  be  put  on  much  stronger  than  usual 
because  it  soaks  in;  and  shadow  washes,  for  example,  put  on  very  wet  paper  have  to  be  pushed 
back  into  place  with  the  Inusli  to  keep  them  from  spreading  too  much  anti  losing  all  definition. 


FULL  COLOR  AND  FREE  SKETCHING   139 

as  the  fingers  of  a  pianist  or  a  typist  find  the  keys  without  process 
of  thought. 

Use  of  Black.  Black  is  not  mentioned  here  because  it  has 
no  place,  in  my  opinion,  in  work  in  full  color  except  in  decora- 
tion. Black  is  the  negation  of  color.  If  you  look  carefully 
enough  and  long  enough  at  something  in  Nature  which  seems 
on  a  cursory  view  to  be  black  you  will  discover  that  it  isn't  black 
at  all  but  dark  grey  or  brown  or  violet.  There  is  no  black  in 
Nature  and  one  of  the  marked  differences  between  the  older  and 
the  new  schools  of  painting  is  in  the  banishment  of  black  from 
the  palette  by  the  latter. 

Brushes.  A  brand-new  sharply  pointed  brush  is  for  most 
purposes  in  free  sketching  a  deterrent  of  success;  for  certain  de- 
tails it  is  indispensable,  but  for  most  uses  one  somewhat  blunted 
is  preferable.  Flat  bristle  brushes  have  their  merits  and  should 
be  tried  out  to  determine  their  virtues  and  limitations.  A 
sketch  made  with  flat  brushes  of  different  sizes  and  widths  may 
be  given  a  very  distinctive  quality  by  the  character  of  the  brush 
strokes. 

Papers.  As  to  paper,  anything  you  like  is  the  thing  for  you 
— smooth  Whatman,  rough  and  extra  rough  Whatman,  Harding 
paper  (a  buff  paper  with  a  strong  diagonal  grain  and  quite  ab- 
sorbent and  in  this  year  of  grace  192 1  hard  to  get) ,  English  tinted 
crayon  paper  {not  the  smooth  side),  French  "Torchon"  paper, 
charcoal  paper.  In  using  tinted  or  colored  paper  you  must  bear 
in  mind  that  the  darker  it  is,  the  furthest  removed  from  white, 
the  more  it  will  lower  the  value  of  every  tone.  As  I  have  said, 
in  water  color  painting  the  white  of  white  paper  is  counted  upon 
to  take  the  place  of  the  white  pigment  used  in  oil  painting.  There- 
fore the  tone  of  the  paper  modifies  any  transparent  wash  to  a 


140  ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

tremendous  extent  and  Chinese  White  must  frequently  be  re- 
sorted to  in  order  to  make  a  light  wash  opaque  enough  to  cover 
the  paper  and  prevent  it  from  changing  the  tone  of  the  wash. 

F.  Hopkinson  Smith  used  to  have  a  lot  of  paper  of  different 
tones  with  him  from  which  he  selected  that  one  which  was  near- 
est to  the  general  tone  of  the  scene,  and  with  a  few  modifications 
of  this  tone  made  here  with  transparent,  there  with  opaque 
washes  and  a  few  touches  of  local  color,  he  produced  very  clever 
and  beautiful  sketches.  They  weren't  very  true,  the  sunlight  in 
them  rarely  seemed  like  real  sunshine,  but  they  were  very 
charming  nevertheless. 

Howard  Greenley  makes  very  clever  sketches  by  choosing  a 
darkish  paper  and  working  on  it  in  body  color,  leaving  the  color 
of  the  paper  to  represent  the  shadows,  the  stone  joints  and  the 
like. 

Methods.  As  to  the  actual  painting,  the  putting  on  of  the 
color,  that  cannot  be  taught  or  described  in  a  book.  I  can  only 
give  a  hint  here  and  there.  I  learned  by  hints  picked  up  here 
and  there  from  this  man  and  that.  Study  everybody  and  learn 
something  from  each  and  presently  your  work  will  begin  to  take 
on  a  personal  accent.  Study  Fortuny,  Harpignies,  Whistler, 
Sargent,  Brangwyn,  Maris,  Israels,  Walcott,  Guerin,  Parrish, 
Dodge  McKnight,  Frank  Hazell,  Herman  Murphy.  When 
Robert  Louis  Stevenson  was  learning  to  write  he  deliberately  set 
himself  the  task  of  imitating  as  closely  as  he  could  the  styles  of 
various  masters  of  English,  rendering  a  given  theme  or  sentence 
as  each  of  them  would  have  done.  The  result  was  a  style  so 
personal  that  one  has  but  to  hear  a  sentence  by  Stevenson  with 
the  eyes  closed  to  recognize  it  instantly.  It  is  the  best  sort  of 
practise  to  copy  provided  you  copy  the  work  of  several,  the  more 


"^v.'.T'^^^r-  ? 


-4 


I'LATli    2  1 


i!V  OTTO  K.  i-:(.(.i:ks 


Fafadc  of  St.  IVt^irs  in  R:)niL'.     Illustrating  an  interesting  point  of  xicw  and  an  admirable 

rendition  of  textures. 


FULL  COLOR  AND  FREE  SKETCHING   141 

widely  divergent  in  method  and  style  the  better.  The  list  of 
men  just  given  indicates  a  range  wide  enough  for  any  one. 

Unless  you  are  making  a  documentary  sort  of  sketch  it  is  the 
worst  kind  of  mistake  to  make  an  elaborate  pencil  outline  draw- 
ing first.  If  you  do  you  get  a  colored  drawing.  The  moment  you 
make  a  careful  line  sketch  the  tendency  is  to  tighten  up  when 
you  come  to  the  color.  A  few  of  the  principal  lines  to  define  the 
big  masses,  the  location  of  important  darks  and  the  rest  of  the 
drawing  done  entirely  with  the  brush.  Painters  in  fact  often 
draw  entirely  with  the  brush  in  pale  blue  or  red — not  a  bad  idea 
for  the  architect  to  adopt. 

Beginning  to  Paint.  I  think  it  is  usually  best  to  put  your 
sky  in  first,  frequently  carrying  it  down  over  the  whole  drawing, 
running  it  out  to  water  and  blotting  it  up  where  you  don't  want 
it.  This  makes  sure  that  it  is  carried  down  behind  the  trees  and 
so  on.  Then  the  far  distance,  distance,  middle  distance  and  fore- 
ground in  this  order,  to  ensure  measures  of  value  as  in  formal 
rendering. 

Sometimes  you  have  to  model  a  good  deal  as  you  go,  especially 
in  a  diffused  light  without  any  real  shadows,  but  the  usual  pro- 
cedure is  to  put  on  the  shadows  last,  of  which,  naturally,  the  most 
important  are  the  first  to  be  done. 

But  it  is  hard  to  follow  any  rule.  Each  subject  has  its  own 
exigencies  and  requirements,  and  must  be  carefully  analyzed  for 
values,  color  masses  and  modulation  before  beginning  to  paint 
in  order  to  determine  the  steps  to  take  and  the  proper  sequence 
of  those  steps.  This  is  of  course  chiefly  applicable  to  work  in 
transparent  as  distinguished  from  body  color;  in  body  color  you 
may  cover  up  lots  of  early  mistakes. 

It  is  well  to  take  both  blotter  and  sponge  with  you  when  you 


142  ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

go  out.  Always  wet  the  sponge  before  you  go,  for  water  is  us- 
ually precious  in  the  field.  And  if  you  make  a  bad  start  just 
sponge  it  out  at  once  and  start  afresh. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  use  the  point  of  the  brush  always.  In 
breaking  one  color  over  another  it  is  often  more  effective  to  use 
the  side.  For  the  rendition  of  some  effects,  such  as  deep  grass, 
not  merely  should  the  point  be  used  but  the  brush  should  be  held 
by  the  extreme  end  of  the  handle.  At  other  times  it  should  be 
firmly  grasped  and  used  like  a  lead  pencil.  By  all  of  which  I 
mean  to  indicate  that  you  should  not  stand  on  ceremony  with 
your  tools  or  materials.  For  some  parts  of  a  water  color  draw- 
ing it  may  be  held  nearly  vertical  on  an  easel — but  there  is  no 
law  of  God  or  man  which  debars  you  from  holding  it  flat  on 
your  knees  or  putting  it  on  the  ground  if  by  so  doing  you  can  get. 
•what  you  want.  Work  upside  down  if  you  like,  inverting  your- 
self or  your  drawing  as  most  convenient.  And  don't  let  any  one 
tell  you  that  this  or  that  method  is  not  "legitimate"  or  "fair." 

Scrubbing.  You  will  see  that  the  Dutch  painters  often 
scrub  the  paper,  not  merely  to  remove  hard  edges  here  and  there 
but  to  produce  certain  effects  of  light  in  cloudy  skies  and  else- 
where. In  view  of  their  lovely  results  it  is  evident  that  when  you 
wish  you  may  scrub  the  paper  all  you  please — but  be  sure  your 
result  is  lovely. 

Textures.  Some  effects  of  texture  may  best  be  rendered  by 
a  general  wash  varied  in  tone  and  laid  very  wet.  Then  when 
perfectly  dry,  drag  color  over  it  where  you  want  it  with  a  pretty 
dry  brush. 

Manipulation.  Color,  particularly  deposing  color,  has  to 
be  manipulated  to  get  the  most  out  of  its  possibilities.  The  be- 
ginner is  apt  to  work  too  quickly  and  not  give  it  a  chance  to  settle 


C  H 


C  ix  oTV^ 


PLATE  22 


BY    r.RXKST    PEIXOTTO 


A    painter's    chief    concern    is    with    the    !)i,u;    elements    of    a    composition;    an    architect    is 
usually  obsessed  by  detail.     This  drawing  exhibits   the   point   of  view  of   a   distinguished 

painter  and  illustrator. 


FULL  COLOR  AND  FREE  SKETCHING   143 

out.  Suppose  we  have  a  big  blank  wall  in  which  there  is  a  con- 
siderable variety  of  tone,  red  running  into  yellow  or  merging  into 
grey  or  violet  in  places.  To  get  quality  and  a  sense  of  texture 
and  of  the  vibration  of  light,  mix  up  some  red,  some  yellow  and 
some  violet  of  the  right  values  and  have  them  ready;  then  begin 
at  the  top  and  pull  the  color  slowly,  working  the  brush  some- 
times from  right  to  left,  sometimes  from  left  to  right,  sometimes 
diagonally  in  either  direction,  sometimes  vertically,  sometimes 
fast,  sometimes  slow,  and  taking  up  the  colors  you  need  as  you 
come  to  them,  blending  them  together  where  they  need  it,  keep- 
ing them  apart  when  necessary;  now  and  then  you'll  need  to  take 
water  to  lighten  up  a  tone — but  be  sure  you  take  up  no  more  than 
you  require  to  lighten  the  tone  or  you'll  get  a  fan  or  a  run-back 
— "All  parts  of  the  wash  equally  wet"  applies  in  free  as  in  formal 
rendering.  By  this  process  you  arrange  the  tiny  particles  of  pig- 
ment in  different  relative  positions,  giving  variety  to  the  same 
tone  by  the  mere  variety  in  handling.  This  is  of  course  a  mere 
hint  at  the  possibilities  of  manipulation.  Water  color  work  is 
not  merely  laying  perfect  flat  washes  nor  evenly  and  perfectly 
graded  washes,  but  also  giving  quality  to  a  wash  by  the  way  it  is 
modulated  by  handling — and  to  the  expert  eye  this  is  one  of  the 
marks  of  the  adept  or  of  the  novice. 

Broadly  speaking,  there  are  two  systems  by  which  washes  in 
full  color  may  be  laid — particularly  large  washes.  One  is  by 
mixing  the  various  pigments  together  and  floating  them  on  in 
one  wash.  The  other  way  is  to  float  one  color  over  another. 
They  both  require  considerable  skill.  Great  judgment  is  re- 
quired in  mixing  the  mixed  wash  and  great  lightness  of  hand  in 
laying  the  colors  singly.  As  has  been  frequently  observed,  it  is 
apt  to  give  a  wash  containing  heavy  color  a  muddy  appearance 


144  ARCHITECTURAL  RENDERING  IN  WASH 

if  the  little  particles  of  pigment  are  disturbed  and  disarranged. 
For  that  reason,  in  building  up  a  compound  tone  with  individual 
washes,  it  is  well  to  lay  the  washes  of  the  lighter  pigments  first. 
For  example,  if  you  wish  to  lay  a  Violet,  put  on  a  wash  of  Car- 
mine first  and  over  that  float  Cobalt  or  Ultramarine.  When  well 
done  this  individual-wash  method  has  great  beauty. 

Spraying  on  Full  Color.  For  sprayed  washes  put  on  by 
air-brush  or  atomizer  in  full  color,  it  is  by  all  odds  the  best  way 
to  build  up  the  tone  instead  of  mixing  red  and  blue  together  to 
make  a  Violet  and  then  spraying  on  the  mixture.  It  is  far  more 
beautiful  to  spray  on  the  separate  colors.  The  tiny  spots  of  each 
pigment  fall  side  by  side  on  the  paper  and  the  eye  blends  them. 

«  «  « 

So  much  for  method  and  methods;  but  beyond  these  lies  that 
inner  vision  without  which  all  work  however  skilfully  done  is 
empty  and  soulless. 


INDEX 

A 

Page 

Accessory  Trees  and  Shrubs 88 

Accuracy  in  Plans lOo,  loi 

Acropolis    84 

Aerial   Photographs    loo 

Agents,  Pigments  as  Toning 29,     30 

Alcohol,   Diluting  with 49 

Alcohol   Spray   49 

Alteneder  Ruling  Pens 20 

Alternate  Method  of  Laying  a  Sky  Wash 43 

Alum,    Use   of 23 

Aims  in   Sketching 133 

Air  Brush    48,  113 

"         "        Skies     47 

"        "       Washes,  Repairing  Defects  in 42 

"         "        or  Atomizer,  Unifying  Tone  with 113 

Analysis  of  Color  Masses  and  their  Modulation 141 

"        "    Subject    141 

Antiquarian  Paper   4 

Appliances 136 

Arrangement  of  Colors,  Habitual 138 

"Art"  Gum   17,  22,  108 

Atomizer  Skies    47 

"          or  Air  Brush,  Unifj'ing  Tone  with 113 

Atomizers    48,  113 

Author's  Palette    126 

B 

"Background"   vs.    Sky 35 

Backgrounds,  Warm   and  Cold 83 

Back  shades   77 

Back  Shadows,  Drawing 63,  69 

"             "           and   Piquage    76 

Balance,  Reversal   for 62,  63 

Beginning  to  Paint 141 

"Biting  in''  a  line i8,  75 

Black,   Use   of 139 

Blaisdell  Pencil  8i 

Block  Plans    113 

Blots,   Removing    51 

Blotters    10,  141 

"         and  their  Uses 28,  29 

Board,  Drawing    3 

Board,  Tilting  the  Drawing 50 

145 


146 


INDEX 


Page 

Body  Color   82,  128 

Brangwyn,    Frank    140 

Brickwork,   Piquage  of 79 

Brillianc>'  by  Contrasts 44,     70 

"  Preserving    44 

Brilliant  Poche   104,  105 

Bristle  Brushes,  Flat  and  Chinese 139 

Broad   Lines    100,  106 

Brown,   to  make 125 

Brush  Case   137 

"      Drawing  with  the    141 

*       Loading  the    38 

"      The   Point   of   the 14a 

"      The  Side  of  the 142 

"       Selecting  a    26 

Brushes,  Air  48 

"       Camels'  Hair   26 

"        Care   of    27 

"        Chinese  Bristle   27 

"       Flat  Hair  or  Bristle 139 

"       Red   Sable    25 

"       Winsor   &  Newton's 25 

Building  assumed  to  be  rendered.  Description  of 17,     34 

Building  up  from  light  to  dark 36 

"        "     Gradations    66 

"        "    Plane  Values   57 

"        "    Values    96 


Camels'  Hair  Brushes 26 

Carbonaceous  Pigments 123 

"            Washes    41,  no 

Care  of  Brushes 27 

"      "    Stick   of   Ink 28 

Carrying  the  Wash  Out 54 

Case,  Brush   137 

Casserole,  Use  of 23 

Casting   Shadows    24 

Ceiling   Indication    105 

"        Solids,  Shadows  of 93 

Character  in   Furnishing,  Expression  of 107 

Charcoal  Paper  139 

Charrette     22 

Charrette,  En  16 

Chifflot    21 

Chinese  Bristle  Brushes 27 

"        Ink 27 

Choice  of  Subject  and  Point  of  View 135 

Circulation,  Grey   105 

"           Tone  of  105 

White   105 

Clean  Hands   n 

Cleaning,  "Dry"    22 

Cleaning  off   22 

Cleanliness  1 1>  108 

"           again    29 


INDEX  147 

Page 

Cloth-backed  Paper ^ 

Cloud    Shadows    "3 

Coarsening   Freehand  Pens 20 

Cold  Backgrounds,  Warm  and   83 

Cold  and  Warm  Lines loi 

"        "  "        Tones,  Opposing   84 

"     -Pressed  Whatman  Paper    4 

"      to  Warm  and  Vice  Versa,  Grading  from 88 

Colonnade  Shadows  7o 

Color,    Body    82,  128 

"       Drawing  in  Quarter,  Half  and  Three-quarter 83 

"       Full    m 

"       Habitual   Arrangement  of J38 

"       "Lifting"   of    87,     91 

"       Local     52 

"       Manipulation  of   142 

"       Masses  and  Their  Modulation,  Analysis  of 141 

"        Piquage   in    89 

"       Powders    "8 

"        Saucer    {godet)    29 

"        Spraying  on  in  Full   I44 

Colors,  Beware  of  old  dry 123 

"       Fugitive    "8,  119 

"        Pan     "6 

Primary    89,  124 

"        Secondary    89 

"       Tertiary    89 

Tube    "5 

Column   Shades  and  Shadows 73 

Combined  Gradations    45 

Common  Sense  in  Indication 104 

Complicated    Shadows    24 

Composition    136 

Compound  Tone  by  Individual  Washes i44 

Concentration  of  Interest  in  Plan "3 

"  "    Light  and  Dark  in  Plans "i 

Conditions,  Indoor  and  Outdoor I37 

Construction  Lines  for  Shadows 24 

"Consuming"  the  Line »9 

Conte   Crayon    81 

Contrast,  Law  of i " 

"         Reversing  Values  for  S3 

Contrasts,  Brilliancy  by 44,    7° 

Convention    ^^ 

"  vs.    Realism     46 

Conventional  Indications   109 

Cooling  Ink    '7 

Copying    ;  •  •  • ; ^^° 

Cornice    Shadow,    Sharp   Gradation   in 68 

"        Shadows    6^,     86 

"  "         Minor  Planes  in   (Diagram) 55.   67 

Crayon  Paper,  English  and  Tinted ^39 

Cret,   Paul   Philippe 84,     98 

"  "       Working  Palette  of  129 

Crossing  Lines  '°3 

Crow-quill   Pens    80 

Curved  Surfaces,  Illumination  of 57 

Cyma  Shades,  Gradation  of 96 


148 


INDEX 

Page 
D 


Damp  Weather 50 

Dampening  the  Drawing 37 

Dark   Horizons    45 

"       Lines     19 

Darkening  up    81 

Darks   and  Lights,   Principal 65 

Defects  in  Airbrush  Washes,   Repairing 42 

"         Repairing    41 

Demi-poche     loi 

Deposing  Pigments    116 

Description  of  Building  assumed  to  be  rendered 17,  34 

"         "    Monotone   and  Monochrome 31 

D'Espouy   18,  20,  64,  94,  95 

Details,  Light  Edges  in 97 

"        Rendering  of   94 

"       Textures   in    99 

Diluting   Ink    17 

"          with  Alcohol    49 

Diminishing    Glass    69 

Discipline    xvi 

Distances   45 

Division  of  Washes 33 

Drawing  at  Small  Scale,  Simplification  of 13 

"         Back     Shadows    69 

"         Dampening  the    37 

"        of  Plan,  Freedom  in   101 

"        with  the  Brush 141 

"        Rendering  Detail    94 

"        Board  3 

"              "      Tilting  the   50 

Drawings  in  Quarter,  Half  and  Three-quarter  Color 83 

"           Shade-line   21 

"Dry-cleaning"    22 

Dull  Poche   103 

E 

Easels 137 

Edges  in  Details,  Light 97 

"       Mending    40 

"      of  a  Wash,  Freshening  up  the 38 

Edifices  de  Rome  Moderne — Letarouilly 107 

Eggers,  Otto  R.,  Working  Palette  of 129 

Eggshell  Paper   4 

Electric  Fan,  Use  of 10,  23 

Eliminating  Spots  and   Streaks 41,  42 

En   Charrette    16 

English   Crayon  Paper 139 

Ensemble   loi 

Entourage    lOo 

"          and  Tree  Masses  Generally  108 

Envois  of  the  Grand  Prix  Men i8 

Erasures    14 

Erechtheion     84 

Evaporation  of  Ink,  Preventing  the 28 

Experimenting    87 


INDEX  149 


Page 

Expression  of  Character  in  Furnishing 107 

Extra  Rough  Whatman  Paper 139 

F 

Fan,  Use  of  Electric 10,     23 

"Fans"  or  "run-backs" 5,  29,  50,  143 

Field,  Sponge  for  the 141,  142 

Final  Paper,  Transferring  Studies  to 12 

Flat  Hair  and  Bristle  Brushes 139 

Floor   Indication    105 

Foliage   82 

"         Use  of  Sponge  for 112 

Following  a  Line 38 

Foregrounds,  Perspective   46 

Fortuny    140 

Free  Sketching   133 

Freedom  in  Drawing  of  Plan 101 

Free-hand  Pens   20 

"       "         "      Coarsening  and  Sharpening  of 20 

Freshening  up  Edges  of  a  Wash 38 

"Frothing"     15 

Frotter    15 

Fugitive   Colors    118,  119 

Full   Color    133 

"        "       Spraying  on  in 144 

Furnishing  a  Plan 105,  106 

"  "      "     Use  of  Washes  in 107 

"  Expression  of  Character  in 107 

Furniture   105 

G 

Gamier,    Tony    102 

Gillott's   Pens    20 

Glass,  Diminishing 69 

"       Painting   on    137,  138 

Glazing   Method,    The 90 

Godefroy   65 

Godet  (Color  Saucer) 29 

Goodhue,  Bertram  G 47,  104 

Gouache     128 

Gradation  in  Plans no 

"          of  Cyma  Shades 96 

"            "  Steps     70 

"           "  Windows  71 

Gradations,  Building  up 66 

"             Combined   45 

"             Reversing   62 

Grading  a  Wash  from  Light  to  Dark  and  Vice  Versa 37 

"        from  Cold  to  Warm  and  Vice  Versa 88 

"         Modillion  Shadows 69 

"        of  Plane  Washes 6a 

"        Plane  Washes  Upwards  62 

"         Small  Washes   71 

Grand  Prix  Men 94,   95,  96 

"          "        "     Envois   of   the 18 

Graphite    11,  15 


150  INDEX 


Page 

Green  Rubber 22 

Greenley,  Howard   140 

Grey   Circulation    105 

"       To  make    125 

Greys  of  Plan   105 

Grinding  or  Rubbing  up  India  Ink 28 

Grinding  Saucer,   Slate 28,  104 

Guerin,  Jules  81,  115,  116,  120,  122,  135,  140 

"           "        Working  Palette  of 129 

H 

Habitual  Arrangement  of  Colors 138 

Hair  Line   103 

Handling  in  Plans,  Subtlety  of 108 

Hands,    Clean    11 

Harding  Paper   i39 

Harmony  83,  loi 

Harpignies    140 

Hatching    41 

Hatfield's  Colors  116 

Hazell,  Frank 140 

"             "       Working  Palette  of 131 

Hea'vy  Pigments   116 

^'             "         Settling  out  of 118 

Hedges    108 

Higgins'    Ink   17,   103,  104 

"         Paste    5 

High  and  Low  Key  or  Pitch 136 

Hopeless  Stage,  The 51 

Horizons,  Dark   45 

Horizontal  Working 143 

Hot  Pressed  Whatman  Paper 4 


Mlumination  of  Curved  Surfaces >  57 

"           "    Planes,  Relative    SS 

Importance  of  Program    xiii 

India   Ink    22,  28,  32 

•*        "     "Rubbing  up"  or  "Grinding"  of 28 

"        "     Rendering  and  Pure  Color,  Intermediate  step  between 83 

Indication,  Ceiling  and  Floor 105 

"           Common  Sense  in 104 

Indications,  Conventional   109 

Individual  vs.  Mixed  Washes 143 

"         Washes,  Compound  Tone  by 144 

Indoor  Conditions 137 

Indoor  and  Outdoor  Scale  in  Plan 107 

Ink,  Cnre  of  Stick  of 28 

"      Chinese    27 

"      Cooling  or  Warming 17,  18 

"      Diluting    17 

"      Higgins'    17,    103,  104 

"      India   27,  28,  32 

"      Keeping    28 

"     Preventing  the  Evaporation  of 28 

"     Straining  28 


INDEX  151 


Page 

Ink,  Toning  the    17 

Inking  in  of  Plan 105 

"      "    Shadows    24 

Inner  Vision   24 

Interest  concentrated  in  Plan 113 

Intermediate  or  Subordinate  Planes 5S 

"            Step  between  India  Ink  Rendering  and  Pure  Color 83 

Israels    136 

J 

Joining  Sheets  (of  paper) 5 

Joint  Lines    21 

Juxtaposition  of  Varied  Tones 89 

K 

Keeping  Ink   28 

Keeping  the  Wash  evenly  wet 38,     73 

Key  136 

"     High  and  Low   136 

"    Preservation  of   83,     84 

L 

Larger  Scale,  Studies  at 13 

Law  of  Contrast   iit 

Laying  Sky  Washes 36,     37 

"Legitimate"  Methods   142 

Letarouilly's  Edifices  de  Rome  Moderne 107 

"Lifting"  of  Color 87,     91 

Light  and  Dark  in  Plans,  Concentration  of 1 1 1 

"      Edges  in  Details  97 

"      Lines    100 

"      Reflected    58 

"       (Color),   Quality   of 31,  136 

"       (Value),    Quantity   of    31,  136 

"      to  Dark,  Building  up  from. 36 

"        "       "        or  Vice  Versa,  Grading  a  Wash  from 37 

Lightening  up 17 

Lights  and  Darks,  Principal 65 

Lightweight  Pigments    116 

Line  and  its  Quality,  The 18 

"     "Biting   in"   a 18,     75 

"     "Consuming"  the  19 

"     Following   a    38 

"     Hair    103 

"     Drawings,    Shade-    21 

"     Watertable    no 

"     Working    12 

Lines,  Broad  and  Soft 20,  100,  106 

"       Cold  and  Warm loi 

"       Crossing     103 

"      Dark 19 

"       for  shadows,  Construction 24 

"       Joint     21 

"       Light    19,  lOD 

"      Piquage  by   79 

"      Speed  in  Drawing 18 


152  INDEX 


Page 

Lines,  Thick i8 

"      Thin    i8 

"      Window    (in  plans) 103,  104 

"       Wiry    18,  106 

"      vs.  Planes  19 

Loading  the  Brush 38 

Local  Color    52 

Long,  Birch  Burdette,  Working  Palette  of 130 

Low  Key  or  Pitch 136 

Luminosity    41 

Luminous  Washes 41 

M 

McGoodwin's  Shades  and  Shadows 25 

McKnight,  Dodge  140 

Main   Cornice   Shadows 86 

Manipulation  of  Color 142 

Speed   of    84 

Maris   140 

Meagreness    105,  109 

Medaille  des  Concours 100 

Mending  Edges  40 

Method  of  Laying  a  Sky  Wash,  Alternate 43 

"        The  Glazing    90 

Methods,  "Legitimate"  142 

"         in   Sketching    140 

"          of  Grading  Small  Washes , 71 

Metal  Work  and  Windows,  Piquage  of 79 

Minor  Plane  Values 65 

"      Planes  in  Cornice  Shadows  (Diagram) 55,  67 

Mixed  vs.  Individual  Washes 143 

Modillion  Shadows,  Grading 69 

Monochrome  and  Monotone,  Definition  of 31 

Monotone    31,  83 

"          and  Monochrome,  Definitions  of 31 

Mounted  Paper  137 

Mounting  of  Paper 5,  7 

Mother  Wash,  The 32»  85 

Murphy,  Herman   140 

o 

Old  dry  colors,  Beware  of 123 

"     seasoned   paper  best 27 

Opaque  Pigments    116 

Openings,  Warm  or  Cold  Tones  in 87,     88 

Opposing  Cold  and  Warm  Tones 84 

Ornament,  Shadows  of 75 

Outdoor  and  Indoor  Scale  in  Plan 107 

"        Conditions    I37 

Outlining  Poche    103,  104 

P 

Pace  in  Running  Washes ^23 

Paint,  Beginning  to ^4^ 


INDEX  153 


Page 

Painting  on  Glass i37i  ^38 

"       Scrubbing  the  Paper  in  Sketching  or 142 

Pale  Lines ^9 

Palette,  Establishing  a  Working 126 

"        Folding   136 

"        of  Author  26 

«        "    Paul  P.  Cret  129 

"        "    Otto  R.  Eggers 129,  130 

"         "    Jules    Guerin 129 

"         "    Frank   Hazcll    131 

"         "    Birch  Burdette  Long 130 

"         "    Hubert  G.  Ripley 131 

"       Setting  the  138 

Pan    Colors    116 

Paper,  Antiquarian 4 

"       Blotting    28 

"       Charcoal    I39 

"      Cloth-backed    6 

"      Eggshell   4 

"      English  Crayon  i39 

"      for  Sketches   i39 

"       Harding   I39 

"      Joining  Sheets  of 5 

"      Lightweight  4 

"      Mounted  i37 

"      Mounting  of   5>      7 

"      Old  seasoned,  Best   7 

"      Preserving  the  Surface  of 14 

"      Protecting  the    14 

•'      Roll   4,     5 

"      Selection   of    7 

"       Steinbach   4 

"      Thin    4 

"      Tinted  Crayon  i39 

"      Torchon  i39 

"      Transfer    16 

"      Use  of  Alum  for  re-calendering  the  23 

"      Whatman  Cold  Pressed  4 

'»  "  Hot  "        4 

"  "  Extra  Rough  i39 

"  "  Roll    4 

"  "  Rough    139 

"  "  Smooth    139 

Parrish,   Maxfield    "5i  i40 

Parthenon 84 

Passing  Plane  Washes 54 

Paste,   Higgins'    5 

Pattern    102 

Pen  Shadows,  Ruling- 75 

Pencil,  Blaisdell    81 

Penciling  in    '4 

"    a  Plan  103 

Pens,  Alteneder's  Ruling 20 

"      Coarsening  and  Sharpening  Freehand 20 

"       Crow-quill     20 

"      Freehand  20 

"       Gillot's   20 

"      Ruling  20,     75 


154  INDEX 


Page 

Penumbra    98 

Permanence   of  Pigments 117 

Perspective  Foregrounds 46 

Perspective  in  Plan,  Trees  in 111 

Perspectives    90 

Photographs,   Aerial    (footnote) 100 

Pigments  as  Toning  Agents 29 

"         Carbonaceous    123 

"         Deposing   116 

"         Heavy 116 

"        Lightweight  116 

"         Opaque   116 

"        Permanence  of  117 

"        Properties  of  84,  116 

"         Settling  out  of  heavy 118 

"        Transparent    89,  116 

Piquage  17,  32,  62,  70,  78,  97 

"        and  Back  Shadows 76 

"        by  Lines   79 

"         in  Color   89 

"         of  Brickwork  79 

"          "  Stonework    78 

"        "  Windows  and  Metal  Work 79 

"        Texture  by  79 

"        Use  of  the  Rubber  in 80 

Piquer   17.  89 

Pitch    138 

Pitches  of  Platforms,  etc.,  Whites  in 12 

Plan,  Concentration  of  Interest  in  a 113 

"       Crossing  Lines  in 103 

"       Freedom  in  Drawing  of lOi 

"       Furnishing   a    106 

"      Indoor  and  Outdoor  Scale  in 107 

"       Inking  in  of  a 103 

"       in  Rendering,   Simplification  of 109 

"      Penciling  in  of  a 103 

"      Preliminary  Study  of  Values  in  a 109 

"       Shadows   112 

"       Subtlety  of  Handling  in 108 

"      The  Greys  of  a 105 

"      Third    Dimension    in 102 

"      Trees  in  Perspective  in  a 1 1 1 

"       Use  of  Washes  in  Furnishing  a 107 

"       Washes  in   no 

Plans,  Accuracy  in  100,  101 

"      Block    113 

"      Concentration  of  Light  and  Dark  in 1 1 1 

"       Gradation  of    1 10 

"       Meagreness  in   105 

"       Rendering  of    100 

"       Window  Lines  in 104 

Plane  Values  52,  57 

"       Minor    6s 

"      Washes,   Grading  of 62 

"             "          Passing    54 

Planes  in  Line,  Value  of 17 

"       Intermediate  or  Subordinate 58 

"      Minor,  in  Cornice  Shadows  (Diagram)    55,  67 


INDEX  155 


Page 

Planes,  Relative  Illumination  of S5 

"       vs.  Lines    19 

Planning  out  Washes 33 

Plantations  in  Plans 108,  109 

Platforms,  etc.,  Whites  in  Pitches  of 12 

Poche    loi,  102 

"      Brilliant  or  Dull 104,  105 

"       Demi-    loi 

"      Outlining    103,  104 

Pocher    105 

"       Proper  Time  to 105 

Point  of  the  Brush 142 

"      "    View  and  Choice  of  Subject 135 

Powders,   Color    128 

Preliminary  Steps   3 

"            Study  of  Values  in  Plans 109 

Preservation  of  Key 83,  84 

Preserving  Brilliancy    44 

"             the  Surface  of  Paper 14 

Preventing  the  Evaporation  of  Ink 28 

Primary  Colors 89,  124 

Principal  Darks  and  Lights 65 

Problem  in  Reflected  Light,  etc.,  Sections  as 93 

Program,  Importance  of   xiii 

Properties   of  Pigments 84,  116 

Propylaea    84 

Protect  Drawing,  Shield  to 14 

Protecting  the  Paper 14 

Puddles    10 

Pure  Monotone   31 

Q 

Quality  of  Light   (Color) 3I1  ^36 

Quantity  of  Light  (Value) 3I)  ^i^ 

Quality  of  Tone 85 

"        The  Line  and  its 18 

Quarter  Color,  Half  and  Three-quarter  Color,  Drawings  in 83 

R 

Rays,  Spectrum 124 

Realism  vs.  Convention 46 

Re-calendering  the  Paper 23,  24 

Red  Sable  Brushes 25,  26 

Reflected   Light 58 

"         Lights,  Sections  a  problem  in 93 

"          Shades    77 

"          Shadows    63 

Relative  Illumination  of  Planes 55 

Removing  Blots   5^ 

Rendering  Details  94 

"          Plans 100 

"          Sections    93 

"          Simplification  of  plan  in 109 

Repairing  Defects  4' 

Reversal  of  gradations  for  balance 62 

Reversing  Values  for  Contrast 53 


IS6 


INDEX 


Page 

Ripley,  Hubert  G 81,  84,  135 

"            "        "  Working  Palette  of   131 

Roll  Paper  4,  5 

Ross,  Denman   31,  85 

Rough  Whatman  Paper 139 

Rubber   Cement   47 

Rubber,  Use  of  the 80 

Rubbers,  Green  and  Ruby   2Z 

Rubbing  on   15 

Rubbing  up  or  Grinding  India  Ink 28 

Ruby  Rubber   > 22 

Ruling-Pen  Shado^Ts   75 

"       Pens    20 

Runbacks  or  Fans 5,  6,  29,  30,  50,  143 

Running  Washes  containing  much  Color 87 

"              "        Pace   in    123 

"              "        too  wet 39 

S 

Sanguine    16 

Sargent,  John  S 133,  140 

"Sauce"    io8 

Saucer,  Color  {godet) 29 

"        Slate   Grinding    28,  104 

Scale,  Indoor  and  Outdoor,  in  Plan 107 

"      in  Treatment   103 

"      Simplification  of  Drawing  at  Small 13 

"       Studies  at  Larger 13 

"       Treatment  in  Relation  to 103 

Scrubbing  the  Paper  in  Sketching  or  Painting 143 

Seats  or  Stools,  Sketching 137 

Secondary   Colors    89 

Sections,  Problem  in  Reflected  Light 89 

"        Rendering  of   , 93 

Selecting  a  Brush 26 

Selection  of  Paper 7 

Sequence,  Spectrum   126,  138 

Setting  the  Palette 138 

Settling-out  of  Heavy  Pigments 118 

Shade-line  Drawings  21 

Shades  and  Shadows 65 

"         "            "          Column   73 

"        "           "         McGoodwin's    25 

"      Back    77 

"      Gradation  of  Cyma 96 

"       Reflected    77 

Shadows,  Back   63,  69 

"              "      and   Piquage    7^ 

"         Casting    24 

Cloud    "3 

"         Colonnade    70 

"         Complicated   24 

"         Construction  Lines  for 24 

"         Cornice    66 

"          Grading  Modillion   69 

*'         Inking  in    24 

"         Main  Cornice   86 

"         Minor  Planes  in  Cornice 55>  67 


INDEX  157 


Page 

Shadows  of  Ceiling  Solids  93 

"  "    Ornament    75 

Plan  112 

"  Reflected     63 

"  Ruling  Pen 75 

"  Sharp  Gradation  in  Cornice 68 

Small   75 

Sharp   Gradation  in   Cornice  Shadow 68 

Sharpening  Freehand  Pens 20 

Sheets  (of  paper),  Joining 5 

Shield  to  Protect  Drawing i^^ 

Shrubs  and  Trees,  Accessory 88 

Side  of  the  Brush 142 

Silhouettes  22 

Simplification  of  Drawing  at  Small   Scale 13 

"  "    Plan  in  Rendering. . . ., 109 

Sketches,  Paper  for 139 

Sketching,  Aims  in 133 

Free ■.'.133 

"  Methods  in 140 

"  or  Painting,  Scrubbing  the  Paper  in 142 

"  Textures  in   142 

Skies,  Air  Brush   47 

"      Atomizer  47 

"       Sprayed   47 

Sky  Tones  35 

"    vs.   "Background"    35 

"   Wash,  Alternate  Method  of  Laying  a 43 

"   Washes  85,    86 

"  "        Laying   36,     37 

Slate  Grinding  Saucer 28,  104 

Small  Scale,  Simplification  of  Drawing  at 13 

"      Shadows 75 

"     Washes,    Methods    of    Grading 71 

Smith,   F.   Hopkinson 140 

Smooth  Whatman  Paper 139 

Soft  Lines  20,  100,  106 

Solids,   Shadows  of  Ceiling 93 

Spectrum  Rays  1 24 

"  Sequence    126,  138 

Speed  in  Drawing  Lines 18 

"      (or  Pace)   in  Running  Washes 123 

.  "      of  Manipulation    84 

Sponge,   Face    23 

"         for  the  Field 141,  142 

"  "     Foliage,  LTse  of  112 

Sponging   down   Washes 96,     99 

"  off 23 

Spots,  Eliminating  41,     42 

Spray,  Alcohol   49 

"       Washes,  Templates  for 47 

Sprayed  Skies  47 

Spraying  on  in  Full  Color 144 

Steinbach  Paper 4 

Steps,  Gradation  of 70 

Stevenson,  Robert  Louis 140 

Stick  of  Ink,  Care  of . .    28 

Stippling    42 


158 


INDEX 


Page 

Stone,   Weathering  of 97 

Stonework,  Piquage   of 78 

Straight-edge,   Use   of S 

Straining  Ink     28 

Streaks,  Eliminating   41,  42 

Strips,    Tick 12 

Studies  at  Larger  Scale 13 

"        to  final  paper,  Transferring 12 

Study  of  Plan  Values,  Preliminary 108,  109 

Subject  and  Point  of  View,  Choice  of 135 

"       Analysis  of  141 

Subtlety  of  Handling  in  Plan 108 

Subordinate  or  Intermediate  Planes 58 

Surface  of  Paper,  Preserving  the 14 

Surfaces,  Illumination  of  Curved 57 

T 

Temperament  114 

Templates  for  Spray  Washes   47 

Tertiary   Colors    89 

Texture  by  Piquage 79 

Textures  81,  113 

"        in  Details   99 

"         "    Sketching   142 

Thick  Lines 18 

Thin  Lines   18 

Thin  and  Lightweight  Paper 4 

Third  Dimension  in  Plan 102 

Tick  Strips  i2 

Tilting  the  Drawing  Board 50 

Time  to  Pocher,  Proper 105 

Tinted  Crayon  Paper 139 

Tone,  Quality  of 85 

"       of   Circulation    105 

"      Unified  with  Air  Brush  or  Atomizer 113 

"      Value  of   85 

Tones  in  Openings,  Warm  or  Cold 87,     88 

"       Juxtaposition  of  Varied 89 

"      Opposing  Cold  and  Warm 84 

"      Sky    35 

Toning  Agents,  Pigments  as 29 

"       the  Ink 17 

Torchon  Paper    , 139 

Transfer  Paper  16 

Transferring  Studies  to  Final  Paper 12 

Transparent  Pigments   89,  116 

"  Washes   41 

Treatment  in  Relation  to  Scale 103 

Tree  Forms  in  Plan,  Use  of  Sponge  in 112 

Tree  Masses  and  Entourage  Generally 108 

Trees    103 

"       and  Shrubs,  Accessory 88 

"      in  Perspective  in  Plan m 

Tube  Colors  116 

u 

Uniformity    34 

Unifying  Tone  with  Air  Brush  or  Atomizer 113 


INDEX  159 


Page 

Unifying  Washes  t-.-.v 89 

Use   of   Alum 23 

"     "    Black    131 

"     "    Blotters   28,  29 

"     "    Casserole   23 

«•     "    Electric   Fan    10,  23 

*•     "    the  Rubber  in  Piquage 80 

"     "     Sponge  for  Foliage    "2 

"     "     Straight-edge    5 

*'     "    Washes  in  Furnishing  Plan 107 

V 

Valley  Forge  Memorial 98 

Value  of  Tone 85 

Values    31 

"        Building  up   96 

"               "         "    Plane 57 

"       for  contrast,  Reversing 53 

"       of  Minor  Planes 65 

"        "    Planes    52 

"         "    Planes  in  Line 17 

"        Preliminary  Study  of  Plan 109 

Varied  Tones,  Juxtaposition   of 89 

View  and  Choice  of  Subject,  Point  of 13 S 

Villa   Medici    94 

Viollet-Ie-Duc    18 

W 

Walcott,  William   .• I33i  ^¥> 

Ware,  Professor  William  R 8 

Warm  and  Cold  Lines 101 

"        "        "      Tones,  Opposing  84 

"         "         "       Backgrounds    83 

"        "    Vice  Versa,  Grading  from  Cold  to 88 

Warming  Ink   *7»  ^8 

Wash,  Alternate  Method  of  Laying  a  Sky 43 

"       cut  to  the  end.  Carrying  the 54 

"       evenly  wef,  Keeping  the 38,  73 

"       Freshening  up  the  Edges  of  a 38 

"      from  Light  to  Dark  and  Vice  Versa,  Grading  a 37 

♦'      Laying   the    Sky 36,  37 

"      The  Mother   32 

Washes,  Carbonaceous    4^1  ^ 'o 

"         Compound  Tone  by  Individual ^44 

"        containing  much  pigment,  Running  of 87 

"         Division  of   33 

"         Grading  of  Plane 62 

"         in   Plan    "O 

'•        Laying   Sky 3<5,  37 

"         Luminous   4' 

"         Methods  of  Grading  Small 7' 

"        Pace  or  Speed  in  Running 123 

"         Passing  Plane    54 

"         Planning  out 33 

"        Repairing  Defects  in  Air  Brush 42 

"         too  Wet,  Running 39 


i6o  INDEX 

Page 

Washes,  Sky 85,    86 

"        Sponging  down    96 

"        Templates  for  Spray 47 

"        Transparent 41 

"         Unifying    89 

Water  Bottle    i37 

Watertable  Line   no 

Weather,    Damp    5° 

Weathering  of  Stone 97 

Whatman  Paper,  Antiquarian 4 

"  "        Cold  Pressed  and  Hot  Pressed  4 

"  "        Extra  Rough    139 

"  "        Smooth 139 

"        Roll  Paper   4 

"        Paper,  Rough  I39 

Whistler    83,  140 

White  Circulation 105 

Whites  in  Pitches  of  Platforms,  etc 12 

Windows  and  Metal  Work,  Piquage  of 79 

"  Gradation   of    71 

"  in  Plans,  Lines  in 104 

Winsor  &  Newton's  Brushes  25 

"        "  "         Pigments  "6 

Wiry  Lines    18,  106 

Working  from  Light  to  Dark 1 1 1 

"        Horizontally  or  Vertically J43 

"        Line « 

Y 

Yellow  Ochre  Fallacy » J20 


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